Biden calls Vladimir Putin 'a war criminal'

Kremlin says Biden’s words are ‘unacceptable and unforgivable’

President Joe Biden on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal as the atrocities in Ukraine mount and the president there begged the U.S. Congress for more help.

“He’s a war criminal,” the President said of Mr Putin as he left an unrelated event. It’s the sharpest condemnation yet of Mr Putin and Russian actions by a U.S. official since the invasion of Ukraine.

While other world leaders have used the words, the White House had been hesitant to declare Mr Putin’s actions those of a war criminal, saying it was a legal term that required research.

But in a speech Wednesday, Mr Biden said Russian troops had bombed hospitals and held doctors hostage. He pledged more aid to help Ukraine fight Russia.

AFP adds

Mr Biden’s reference to Mr Putin as a “war criminal” over his military operation in Ukraine is “unacceptable and unforgivable,” the Kremlin said Wednesday.

“We believe such rhetoric to be unacceptable and unforgivable on the part of the head of a state, whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world,” said Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the state news agencies TASS and Ria Novosti.