Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilians and civilian infrastructure “war crimes.”
The top U.S. general said point-blank that Russia “has deliberately struck civilian infrastructure with the purpose of harming civilians” and has “targeted the elderly, the women, and the children of Ukraine” while addressing reporters after Wednesday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels.
NATO WARNS RUSSIA: PUTIN WOULD ‘REGRET’ ANY USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
“Indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilian targets is a war crime in the international rules of war,” he continued. “Ukraine and its citizens have suffered greatly, but the people and the nation of Ukraine endure and they are an inspiration to all.”
Russia launched its most intense rocket and missile barrage in months of war earlier this week in a multitude of cities across the country, including the capital of Kyiv, which had largely been outside the battlefield. Roughly 20 people were killed, and about a hundred more were injured, while Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian infrastructure were targeted.
“We are gravely concerned that some of the attacks appear to have targeted critical civilian infrastructure,” the United Nations’s human rights office said earlier this week.
Putin threatened similar attacks on Monday at a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council, according to Russian state media, warning, “If attempts continue to carry out terror attacks on our territory, Russia’s responses will be tough and by their scope correspond to the level of threats created for the Russian Federation.”
Days earlier, there was an explosion on the Kerch Bridge, which is the only bridge that connects Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. Ukrainian officials have not taken credit for the bombing, though Russia has pointed the finger at them. Russian authorities have arrested eight people in connection to the incident.
The attacks, in addition to Russia’s continued losses, raise the concern that Putin could use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
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President Joe Biden said on CNN Tuesday night that he doesn’t believe Putin will use a nuclear weapon, though he warned that it “could lead to Armageddon.”
“The whole point I was making was it could lead to just a horrible outcome,” he added. “And not because anybody intends to turn it into a world war or anything, but it just — once you use a nuclear weapon, the mistakes that can be made, the miscalculations, who knows what would happen?”
