UK premier accuses Russia’s Putin of ‘war crimes’ in Ukraine

LONDON (AA) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

Bombing innocent civilians “already fully qualifies as a war crime,” Johnson said during Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament.

“What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime,” he said.

“I know that the ICC (International Criminal Court) prosecutor is already investigating, and I am sure the whole House will support that.”

Johnson lauded the “extraordinary fortitude” shown by Ukrainians in defending their country.

“Putin has gravely miscalculated, in his abhorrent assault on a sovereign nation he has underestimated the extraordinary fortitude of the Ukrainian people and the unity and resolve of the free world in standing up to his barbarism,” he said.

If Putin escalates his war, the UK will ramp up humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, he added.

Johnson defended the UK’s response since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, saying the country “led the way” in sanctions and cutting off Moscow from the international payment system SWIFT.

“What we are bringing forward now is the exposure of the ownership of properties in London and across the whole of the UK in a way that has not been possible before, and that I believe will continue to tighten the noose upon Putin’s regime,” the premier said.