President Joe Biden has for the first time accused Russia of carrying out a ‘genocide’, saying Vladimir Putin is trying to ‘wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian’.
‘Yes, I called it genocide,’ he told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday as he doubled down on this accusation while boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, as he said he would ‘let the lawyers decide’.
He added: ‘It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.’
The admission comes as the White House debates how much to involve itself in the investigation into Russian atrocities by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The Biden team wants to see Putin and his military chiefs held to account for the war horrors and many believe the court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide able to secure justice.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron declined Wednesday to repeat Biden’s genocide accusation , warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war.
Speaking to France 2 television as he ramps up his re-election campaign against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron said leaders should be careful with language.
‘I would say that Russia unilaterally unleashed the most brutal war, that it is now established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and make them face justice,’ Macron said.
‘It’s madness what’s happening, it’s incredibly brutal,’ he added.
‘But at the same time I look at the facts and I want to try as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace. I’m not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause,’ he said.
The comments by Macron, who has kept dialogue going with Putin during the conflict, echo concerns the French leader expressed last month after Biden called Putin a ‘butcher’.
Ukrainian and French forensics investigators place remains of burned civilians exhumed from a grave in body bags, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the town of Bucha
French forensics investigators, who arrived to Ukraine for the investigation of war crimes, stand next to a mass grave
The forensic team exhume the bodies of a mother and two children buried near the mass grave by a church in the town of horrors
Volunteers load bodies of civilians killed in Bucha onto a truck to be taken to a morgue for investigation into possible war crimes
President Joe Biden has for the first time accused Russia of carrying out a ‘genocide’, saying Vladimir Putin is trying to ‘wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian’
But the government is bound by laws enacted by Congress in 1999 to 2002, intended to stop the court from investigating the US.
Previous administrations have also objected to the court’s jurisdiction over countries that are not part of the treaty that led to its formation, including the US and Russia, the New York Times reported.
Officials believe that the best course of action is to now continue to compile evidence of war crimes, as a team of international investigators including a French forensic team visited the horror town of Bucha on Tuesday where Russia is accused of the torture and mass killing of civilians.
But neither Biden nor his administration have announced new consequences for Russia or assistance to Ukraine following Biden’s public assessment of genocide.
The White House is debating how much to involve itself in the investigation into Russian atrocities by the International Criminal Court in The Hague
A volunteer rests after loading into a truck a plastic bags that contains the corpses of civilians killed by Russian soldiers
The Russian retreat from towns near Kyiv has revealed scores of civilian deaths and the full extent of devastation from Russia’s attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital
The prosecutor general of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova, visits the exhumation of a mass grave with French forensic investigators
Neither Biden nor his administration have announced new consequences for Russia or assistance to Ukraine following Biden’s public assessment of genocide
Biden’s comments drew praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had encouraged Western leaders to use the term to describe Russia’s invasion of his country.
‘True words of a true leader (at)POTUS,’ he tweeted. ‘Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.’
A United Nations treaty, to which the U.S. is a party, defines genocide as actions taken with the ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.’
Past American leaders often have dodged formally declaring bloody campaigns such as Russia’s in Ukraine as genocide, hesitating to trigger an obligation that under international convention requires signing countries to intervene once genocide is formally identified.
A French forensic team visited the horror town of Bucha on Tuesday where Russia is accused of the torture and mass killing of civilians
Just last week Biden said he did not believe Russia’s actions amounted to genocide, just that they constituted ‘war crimes’
The forensic team exhume the bodies of a mother and two children buried near the mass grave by the church
Members of the international team of war crimes prosecutors including French Gendarmerie IRCGN speak to Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova
That obligation was seen as blocking President Bill Clinton from declaring Rwandan Hutus’ killing of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in 1994 as genocide, for example.
Biden said it would be up to lawyers to decide if Russia’s conduct met the international standard for genocide, as Ukrainian officials have claimed, but said ‘it sure seems that way to me.’
‘More evidence is coming out literally of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine, and we’re only going to learn more and more about the devastation and let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies,’ he said.
Just last week Biden said he did not believe Russia’s actions amounted to genocide, just that they constituted ‘war crimes’.
During a trip to Europe last month, Biden faced controversy for a nine-word statement seemingly supporting regime change in Moscow, which would have represented a dramatic shift toward direct confrontation with another nuclear-armed country. ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,’ Biden said.
He clarified the comments days later, saying: ‘I was expressing the moral outrage that I felt toward this man. I wasn’t articulating a policy change.’