US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday said it was up to international lawyers to consider evidence before making a determination of whether or not genocide happened during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The statement comes after President Joe Biden said for the first time on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, a significant escalation of his rhetoric.
Price said the United States supported international lawyers trying to determine whether a legal threshold was met, but did not say whether the United States would launch its own inquiry while it supports ongoing processes.
Genocide, considered the most serious international offense, was first used to describe the Nazi Holocaust.
It was established in 1948 as a crime under international law in a United Nations convention.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it categorically disagreed with Biden’s description of Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide,” and accused Washington of hypocrisy.
