Congressman Cohen Condemns Russian War Crimes in Ukraine

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, today condemned Russian war crimes in Ukraine at a hearing entitled "Russian War Crimes in Ukraine."

In his opening statement, Co-Chairman Cohen said in part:

"It is horrifying to see what they have done and continue to do. It is reprehensible. It is repugnant. And it is reptilian what Russia has done to Ukraine. In my opinion, it is just what a genocide is: They want to destroy the Ukrainian people, the country. Those they keep, they want to re-orient and indoctrinate to become Russian, using rubles and the Russian language…and they want to destroy all Ukrainian culture.

"Putin is a sick human being, and he has no scintilla of a connection to humanity, morality, or care. It is really unfortunate, and we have to prosecute him if we can…

"It is a depravity of Putin and his colleagues unknown since Hitler…What they've done in Ukraine shows there's no limits to the depths of their depravity…It's important that we collect this evidence and do what we can to bring people to justice and, hopefully, end this war and save some Ukrainian … human beings, and save the Ukrainian government."

See Co-Chairman Cohen's entire opening statement here.

See his questioning of the expert witnesses here.

Witnesses at today's hearing were:

• Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice;
• Iryna Venediktova, Prosecutor General, Ukraine.
• Wolfgang Benedek, Professor of International Law (ret.), University of Graz;
• Marco Sassoli, Professor of International Law, University of Geneva;
• Veronika Bílková, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague; and
• Timothy Snyder, Professor of History, Yale University, and Permanent Fellow, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

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