Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is providing investigative support to efforts to document war crimes in Ukraine, and he said Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible.
“It is clear that Putin is systematically targeting civilians, whether it’s hospitals or train stations or maternity wards. This is one of the reasons why Canada was one of the first countries to call on the International Criminal Court to look into Putin’s war crimes,” Trudeau said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Canadian investigators, Trudeau said, “are building up the case for people to recognize that not only was this a terrible mistake to violate the sovereignty of another country and create massive global instability that’s impacting energy and food prices around the world, but it is also a series of war crimes that Putin is deliberately committing that he needs to be held to account for.”
Asked if the crimes amount to genocide, Trudeau said it remains to be determined.
“The stories of what Russian soldiers are doing, not just the murder of civilians, but the systematic use of sexual violence and rape, to destabilize and have the greatest negative impact on Ukrainian people as possible is absolutely unforgivable and unacceptable,” Trudeau said. “And that’s why the global community is going to and is responding so strongly.”
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The Associated Press
