Washington [US]: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Sunday (local time) said that US has “very credible” reports of war crimes in Ukraine adding that US along with its EU allies is looking into the possibility of banning Russian oil imports and put pressure on Russia.
Blinken, in an interview with CNN said, “We’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would constitute a war crime. We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons.”
“And what we’re doing right now is documenting all this, putting it all together, looking at it and making sure that as people and the appropriate organisations and institutions investigate whether war crimes have been or are being committed, that we can support whatever they’re doing. So right now, we’re looking at these reports. They’re very credible and we’re documents everything,” the secretary said.
On the possibility of Russian oil imports ban, Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “When it comes to oil, Russian oil, I was on the phone yesterday with the President and other members of the Cabinet on exactly the subject, and we are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil in world markets.”
Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Donetsk and Luhansk – as independent entities following which the western countries imposed a host of sanctions.
