President Joe Biden calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ for his invasion of Ukraine.
“He is a war criminal,” Biden told reporters following an event at the White House, according to Reuters.
This is the first time President Biden publicly referred to Putin as a war criminal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s State of the Union earlier this month there are “credible reports” of Russian targeting Ukrainian civilians, which he says would “constitute a war crime.” However, Blinken stopped short of calling Putin a war criminal. At that time Blinken was the highest profile American to suggest Russia’s committing war crimes.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning Putin as a war criminal.
The resolution encouraged the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and other nations to target the Russian military in any investigation of war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Ukriane has accused Russia of war crimes for targeting civilians in an air strike on maternity and children’s wards in Mariupol. Three people including a child were killed and 17 staff and patients were injured. The U.S. also accused Russian of war crimes for attacking Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and its use of weapons outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, according to Forbes.
The ICC opened an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine earlier this month.
