‘How Is This Not a Genocide?’ CNN’s Tapper Presses Jake Sullivan on White House Rhetoric in Wake of Ukrainian Train Station Attack

CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan from Ukraine, pressing him over Russia’s attack on the city of Kramatorsk.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense says more than 50 people were killed and over 100 more were injured from the Friday missile strike on Krematorsk’s train station, where civilians were taking shelter amid the ongoing Russian invasion. Tapper has been reporting on the train attack in the following days, dispelling Russia’s attempts to accuse the Ukrainian government of attacking its own citizens.

On Sunday’s State of the Union, Tapper asked Sullivan whether the train station attack constitutes a “war crime” — a term the Biden administration has used to label various Russian actions during the invasion.

“It absolutely constitutes war crimes,” Sullivan answered. “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.”

The Biden administration has been hesitant about whether Russia’s actions in Ukraine are tantamount to genocide, so Tapper read the United Nations definition of the term to Sullivan.

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.”

The CNN anchor then asked Sullivan: “How is this not a genocide?”

“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,” Sullivan said. “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.”

After Sullivan further boasted over America’s military aid to Ukraine, Tapper turned to a more “theoretical question” about world leaders who commemorate the Holocaust with the slogan “Never Again.”

“What exactly are they saying ‘Never Again’ to?” Tapper asked.

Watch Sullivan’s answer above, via CNN.