During Monday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was questioned by Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and reports that the Russian military has been using illegal weapons.
“There are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the Russians. If that’s true, what is the next step of this administration and is there a red line for how much violence will be tolerated against civilians — in this manner — that’s illegal and potentially a war crime?” Heinrich asked.
“It is — it would be. I don’t have any confirmation of that. We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime,” Psaki said. “Obviously, there are a range of international fora that would assess that. So, certainly, we would look to that to be a part of that conversation.”
Heinrich then asked Psaki about the aid the Biden administration is sending to Ukraine, asking why it did not include stinger missiles and why it was taking so long to be delivered.
“And then, the new aid that you just laid out at the beginning here. The Post reported over the weekend that this aid will not include Stingers, that it would likely come in a future batch of aid,” Heinrich said. “What is the reason for that?”
“I’m not going to get into specifics of what is in the military package. It is — it is a combination of ground and airborne defense capabilities,” Psaki responded. “And, obviously, we have provided those in the past, but I’m not going to have more details to outline for you from here.”
“You mentioned that this next batch [of aid] is going to be coming in the next few days. Why so long? I mean, days doesn’t sound like a long time to us, but…” Heinrich pressed.
“The package that we already announced continues to be delivered,” Psaki replied, then claimed that the delivery has already been expedited.