President Joe Biden has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes amid mounting evidence of atrocities committed by Russian military forces in Ukraine.
Global outrage is building over claims of Russian soldiers committing civilian killings against Ukrainians.
Harrowing images are being broadcast worldwide after the discovery of mass graves and bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied and bound behind their backs, in Bucha, a town near Kyiv.
Biden spoke to reporters at the Fort McNair army post in Washington and said that they may remember him being criticized for calling Putin a war criminal, but the truth is that war crimes have been committed in Bucha.
“He is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin and continued that it is necessary to gather the evidence and information and to continue to provide Ukraine with weapons to fight the Russian invasion.
US officials are supporting an international prosecution probe that is heading to Bucha to collect evidence. International prosecutors will support the prosecutor general in Ukraine’s war crimes unit.
The Ukrainian government announced a war crimes investigation after 410 civilian bodies were found in areas around Kyiv, some in mass graves, others with hands tied behind their back and shot at point-blank range.
Biden called what was happening in Bucha “outrageous,” and said that Putin must be held accountable for atrocities committed by his military forces.
The State Department has also said that there are credible reports of summary executions, torture, and rape being committed by Russian forces. It said that it is part of a “broader, troubling campaign” being carried out by the Kremlin.
The Pentagon said that it is “fairly obvious” that Russia was responsible for the killings in Bucha, but that it is necessary for more investigations to determine what units, in particular, are responsible for the atrocities.
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