In fiery hearing Rubio refuses to label Putin a ‘war criminal', but ‘war crimes are being committed'

News24

22-05-2025

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced a fiery congressional hearing.
He would not call Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'war criminal'.
Bill Keating recalled Rubio's heated criticism of Putin's record when the top US diplomat served as a senator.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday steered clear of calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'war criminal,' saying the priority was negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict.
In a fiery congressional hearing, Democratic Representative Bill Keating recalled Rubio's heated criticism of Putin's record when the top US diplomat served as a senator, and asked him if he still believed Putin is a 'war criminal'.
'Crimes have been committed in the war on Ukraine, and there will be accountability for that, but our goal right now is to end that war,' Rubio said.
'Because let me tell you, every single day that that war goes on, people are killed, more people are maimed and, frankly, more war crimes are being committed,' he said.
Keating accused Rubio of being 'inconsistent' and 'equivocating'.
Rubio later responded to a fellow Republican by saying there was a value in speaking to Russia.
'If there had not been communications between the US and Russia in 1961, the world could have ended during the Cuban Missile Crisis,' Rubio said.
US President Donald Trump spoke on Monday by telephone to Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his latest effort, so far unsuccessful, to end the war.
Putin, who had faced international isolation during former president Joe Biden's administration, has rebuffed US calls backed by Ukraine for a 30-day ceasefire.
Tens of thousands have died, mainly civilians, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Early in the war, dozens of civilians were found dead in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha following a months-long occupation by Russian forces.
Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the transfer of children from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine into Russia.
Al Jazeera reported that Russia's top diplomat has blamed the war in Ukraine for affecting the supply of arms to Armenia, and has expressed concern that Moscow's longstanding ally would now look to the West for military support instead.
Genya Savilov/AFP
Speaking in Yerevan on the second day of a two-day visit to Armenia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that some of Russia's weapons contracts with the former Soviet republic had been delayed or reassigned due to the pressures created by the war in Ukraine.
Armenia has long relied on Russian weapons in its bitter dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan, against whom it has fought a series of conflicts since the late 1980s.
Reuters reported that it is very likely that Russia and Ukraine will hold technical-level talks next week, for example at the Vatican, Finnish President Alexander Stubb told public broadcaster Yle on Wednesday.