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Biden on Putin: ‘I think he is a war criminal’
It was the harshest condemnation of Putin’s actions from any US official for the reason that conflict in Ukraine started three weeks in the past. Beforehand, Biden had stopped wanting labeling atrocities being documented on the bottom in Ukraine as “conflict crimes,” citing ongoing worldwide and US investigations.
However on Wednesday, talking with reporters at an unrelated occasion, Biden affixed the designation on the Russian chief.
“I feel he’s a conflict legal,” Biden stated after remarks on the White Home.
The shift from the administration’s earlier stance got here after an emotional handle to Congress from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who aired a video exhibiting Ukrainians struggling amid Russia’s onslaught. Zelensky requested American lawmakers and Biden for extra assist defending itself, together with a no-fly zone and fighter jets.
Biden responded in his personal handle just a few hours later, laying out new American navy help to Ukraine — together with anti-aircraft and anti-armor programs, weapons and drones — however stopping wanting acceding to Zelensky’s requests.
Nonetheless, Biden acknowledged the horrors transpiring on the bottom.
“We noticed studies that Russian forces had been holding a whole lot of docs and sufferers hostage within the largest hospital in Mariupol,” Biden stated. “These are atrocities. They’re an outrage to the world. And the world is united in our assist for Ukraine and our dedication to make Putin pay a really heavy value.”
It wasn’t till just a few hours after that that Biden responded to a query about Putin being a conflict legal. Biden initially stated “no,” however instantly returned to a gaggle of reporters to make clear what had been requested. When requested once more whether or not Putin was a conflict legal, he answered within the affirmative.
In Poland final week, Vice President Kamala Harris known as for worldwide investigations into conflict crimes, and made clear she believed atrocities had been underway. She stated the intentional concentrating on of civilians would represent conflict crimes.
After Biden delivered his evaluation, the White Home stated the administration’s investigation into conflict crimes would proceed.
“The President’s remarks converse for themselves,” press secretary Jen Psaki stated. She stated Biden was “talking from the center.”
Whereas the time period “conflict crimes” is usually used colloquially — as Biden gave the impression to be doing Wednesday — they do have a authorized definition that could possibly be utilized in potential prosecution. That features within the Geneva Conference, which specifies intentional concentrating on of civilians as a conflict crime.
But so as to prosecute a conflict crime, strong proof is required. And for Russian officers to be held accountable, they would wish to journey outdoors of the nation.
Nonetheless, an official designation of conflict crimes — backed up with proof — would nonetheless current the West with a symbolic software in framing Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
Biden has come beneath rising strain to do extra to assist besieged Ukrainians as Russia’s marketing campaign intensifies. On Wednesday, a theater in Mariupol the place civilians had been sheltering was bombed, the newest instance of Russia’s indiscriminate shelling.
The strain was solely prone to improve after Zelensky’s dramatic attraction to lawmakers for extra assist. He in contrast what is occurring in Ukraine to Pearl Harbor and September 11, and stated “we want you proper now” to supply extra assist.
Biden watched the handle from the library of his non-public residence, and later known as it a “convincing” and “important” speech.
“Putin is inflicting appalling, appalling devastation and horror on Ukraine, bombing house buildings, maternity wards, hospitals,” he stated afterward. “I imply, it is godawful.”
Subsequent week, Biden plans to journey to Brussels for a unprecedented session of NATO leaders, the place he hopes to show western unity amid Russia’s aggression.
This story has been up to date with further reporting.