BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday it is likely that Russian forces are carrying out more “atrocities” in parts of Ukraine after bodies were found in the town of Bucha.
“For every Bucha there are many more towns Russia has occupied and more towns that it is still occupying, places where we must assume Russian soldiers are committing more atrocities right now,” Blinken told journalists after meeting foreign ministers from NATO and Ukraine in Brussels.
He said the US had warned ahead of Russia’s invasion that part of the Kremlin’s “campaign plan was to inflict atrocities, was to target individuals, was to commit the kinds of crimes that we’re now seeing to terrorise civilian populations.”
“And so this, as we saw it, was part of the game plan all along,” he said.
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“We’ve seen as the Ukrainians have pushed back this Russian tide, we see with the tide receding, what’s left behind, and that is horrific death and destruction.”
Blinken met with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was in Brussels pushing NATO members for more heavy weaponry ahead of a feared major Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
“As we’re speaking, we continue to provide what Ukraine needs but it’s also a constantly evolving picture,” Blinken said.
He said the Ukrainians were “coming forward with new systems that they think would be helpful and effective”.
“We put our own expertise to bear, especially the Pentagon, to help determine what indeed we think could be effective, what Ukrainians would be ready to use as soon as they get it and what we actually have access to,” he said.
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