The first legislative initiative concerning Ukraine this year, calling for recognizing the Kremlin’s actions in its war against Ukraine as genocide has been submitted to the lower chamber of the 119th U.S. Congress.
This was reported on Tuesday by Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, Ukrinform reports.
“In the first week of its work, Congress put a major focus on the fact that Russia commits crimes in the war against Ukraine every day. A draft resolution calling for recognizing Russia’s actions against Ukraine as a genocide has been re-submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives,” Markarova noted on Facebook.
She also reported that this was the result of interaction between the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
The preamble states that the atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including attacks on civilians, direct strikes on maternity hospitals and medical facilities, and the forcible transfer of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, including children, to Russia and the occupied territories meet the criteria set out in Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The main part of the draft resolution condemns the Russian Federation for committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people and calls on the United States, in cooperation with NATO and EU allies, to take measures to support the Ukrainian government in order to prevent further acts of Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people. In addition, the document supports tribunals and international criminal inquiries to hold Russians accountable for the war of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
As reported, the draft of a similar resolution was submitted to the House on February 24, 2023.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Source: Resolution recognizing Russia's actions against Ukraine as genocide tabled in U.S. Congress
