CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during a Sunday morning interview, citing continued atrocities in Ukraine and asking how such acts were not being considered “genocide” by President Joe Biden’s administration.
Tapper paid particular attention to a missile strike on the Krematorsk train station — where Ukrainian civilians were taking shelter — on Friday. According to Ukraine’s Defense Minister more than 50 were killed and over 100 were injured in the attack.
Tapper has been covering the story since the attack occurred, tweeting, “@bencnn reports a local hospital official in Kramatorsk told CNN a total of 80 adults and 19 children were injured in the Russian missile strike. 20 of the injured are in serious condition. Ukrainian officials have said 52 people were killed in the strike.”
.@bencnn reports a local hospital official in Kramatorsk told CNN a total of 80 adults and 19 children were injured in the Russian missile strike. 20 of the injured are in serious condition. Ukrainian officials have said 52 people were killed in the strike.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 9, 2022
On Sunday, Tapper pressed Sullivan on the attack, noting that President Biden had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and his occupation forces of “war crimes” but had stopped short of labeling what was happening as a “genocide.”
“At least 52 civilians including children were killed after the Russian strike on the train station packed with evacuees trying to flee and get to where I am in Lviv,” Tapper began. “Officials say Russia used banned cluster munitions in that strike. Does that attack and the continued seemingly deliberate targeting of civilians by Russia, does all that constitute war crimes?”
“It absolutely constitutes war crimes. In fact, President Biden was well out in front of most of the world in declaring that what Russia was doing and what Vladimir Putin was authorizing here were war crimes. We have seen that in Kramatorsk, in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine. The systematic targeting of civilians, the grisly murder,” Sullivan replied.
Tapper then pressed further, reading aloud the United Nations’ official definition of genocide: “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national ethnical, racial or religious group including ‘killing members of the group’ and ‘causing serious body or mental harm to members of the group.'”
“How is this not genocide?” he asked.
Sullivan appeared to deflect, saying that the label was not as important as the fact that the United States government was providing aid to Ukraine to help stop the atrocities from continuing to pile up.
“In my opinion, the label is less important than the fact that these acts are cruel and criminal and wrong and evil and need to be responded to decisively. And that’s what we’re doing,” he explained.
“We’re doing that not just by supporting international investigations and gathering evidence to hold the perpetrators all the way to the highest levels accountable. We’re doing it by providing sophisticated weapons to the Ukrainians that are making a major difference on the battlefield.”
Tapper pushed back, asking whether the world leaders who stood up every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day and said the words “never again” were missing something when they failed to take action in Ukraine amid the ever-growing evidence that it could be happening again.
“I’m not advocating for any specific action one way or another. I do have to wonder how the international community, including the U.S., decides what kind of wholesale killing necessitates direct military intervention and what kind doesn’t,” Tapper said. “Because every year on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I read these statements from world leaders that say, ‘Never again.’ What exactly are they saying ‘never again’ to?”