If Russian attacks are targeting civilians in Ukraine,

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stopped short of saying Russia was outright committing war crimes in a news conference with his Slovakian counterpart on Thursday, News.az reports citing CNN.

Austin said recent “attacks” in Ukraine “appear to be focused directly on civilians,” and “if you attack civilians, purposely target civilians… that is a crime.”

Austin said Russia’s actions in Ukraine are “under review” by the US State Department.

“There’s a process that we’ll go through to review all of this, but we call upon Mr. Putin to cease these horrible actions; again, these are civilians not combatants and so they should not be targeted,” Austin said.

President Joe Biden yesterday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" in the harshest condemnation of Putin's actions from any US official since the war in Ukraine began three weeks ago.

You Might Also Like