Biden says “it’s clear” Russia is targeting civilians, but it’s “too early to say” if it’s committing war crimes

US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on March 2. (ABC)

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday said “everything is on the table” as the US assesses economic sanctions imposed on Russia for launching an attack on Ukraine and continued to stress the US will not send troops to fight Russian forces in Ukraine.

“What we are going to continue to do is stand firm with our allies in terms of reassessing what we are doing with sanctions. Everything is on the table for consideration, frankly,” Harris told NBC’s “TODAY Show.”

Harris continued: “What we are not going to do and that must be said also, as the President has continuously said, we are not going to put US troops in Ukraine to fight the Russians on the ground or in the air. But we are firm in our preparedness to defend our NATO alliance and our allies, every inch of the NATO territory, and we will continue to do that.”

Harris told ABC’s “Good Morning America” the US is closely monitoring Russia’s actions and assessing whether there has been intentional targeting of civilians and a violation of international law.

“We are very concerned and we are monitoring it. We are fully aware that if there is any intentional targeting of civilians that we are looking at the fact that there may be a violation, very well may be a violation of international law. So this is an issue that we should all be paying attention to. It is atrocious, and it is a violation of all of the standards and principles that we, particularly as NATO nations take seriously in terms of protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of any nation,” Harris told ABC.

Harris said the US would continue to provide humanitarian assistance as well as security assistance to the people of Ukraine.

Harris told NBC that Russia is already seeing the effects of the economic retaliatory measures the US has levied against the nation.

“The ruble is in a free fall. What we’ve seen is the Russian stock market is closed. What we’ve seen is that Russia has received a credit rating of basically junk. So we know it’s having impact,” she said.

“What history will show is that Vladimir Putin basically ended up strengthening NATO and weakening Russia,” the vice president said.

Harris said she spoke on Tuesday with the leaders of Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Romania about how the US will continue to support its allies.

She also praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he “has shown extraordinary courage” and “has been an inspiration to all of us.”



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