President Biden denounces Russia’s war in Ukraine as “genocide”

“Your family’s budget, the opportunity to fill the cistern, none of this should depend on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away,” said President Biden during a visit to Iowa to announce a program that will help lower the price of fuel.

Speaking to reporters aboard the Air Force One presidential plane, the US president defended his decision to call Russia’s actions genocide.

“I called it genocide because it has never been clearer that Putin is just trying to erase the idea that someone can be called a Ukrainian, and the evidence is growing,” said President Biden.

“Let the lawyers decide internationally whether he qualifies or not, but it seems to me exactly that,” he said.

President Biden has repeatedly criticized Russian President Putin, publicly calling him a “war criminal” and demanding that he be brought to justice after evidence of atrocities was uncovered in Bucha, a city on the outskirts of Kiev.

“This man is brutal, and what is happening in Bucha is revolting, and everyone has seen it,” President Biden told President Putin at the time. “This needs… – he is a war criminal.”

For weeks, Western and Ukrainian officials have spoken of growing evidence of what they call systematic atrocities and war crimes being committed by Russian forces as they withdraw from parts of Ukraine.

But if there was any hope that Russia could soon end its month-and-a-half-long offensive in Ukraine, President Putin turned them off during a speech at the Vostochny space station in the far reaches. eastern Russia.

The Russian leader said the war would continue until the army reached what it called its “noble” objectives.

Mr Putin also vowed that the Russian military would move “swiftly and calmly”, blaming Ukraine for disrupting peace talks.

“We are back to a headless situation,” Putin said of the talks, adding that Russia had no choice but to continue.

“I often hear the question of whether it is possible to act faster?” Mr Putin told base staff, according to information circulated by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“It is possible,” he added. “It depends on the intensity of the fighting.”

After being prevented from advancing towards the Ukrainian capital, Russian forces are already concentrating in the eastern Donbas region, where Ukraine announced on Tuesday that it was investigating allegations that a banned substance had been used against Ukrainian forces. Although it is not yet clear what kind of substance could be used, Western officials warned that any use of chemical weapons by Russia would constitute a serious escalation of an already devastating war.

After encountering obstacles in achieving his clear ambition to occupy the Ukrainian capital, Russian President Vladimir Putin is already mobilizing forces for a new offensive in the country’s eastern region, Donbas. He insisted on Tuesday that his campaign will continue until it achieves its goals. Mr Putin said Russia had no choice but to launch what he called a “special military operation”, adding that it aimed to protect civilians in Donbas, a predominantly Russian-speaking region.

As Ukrainian forces prepare for a new offensive, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said it was possible that ammunition containing phosphorus had been used in Mariupol, causing heavy burns but not being classified as chemical weapons. The city lies in the Donbas region and for six weeks has been the target of heavy shelling by Russian troops that, according to its mayor, have killed more than 10,000 civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday night that Russian forces may have used chemical weapons in the city, echoing similar warnings repeated by Western officials. Leaders both inside and outside the country said they were urgently investigating unconfirmed allegations by a Ukrainian military regiment that a poisonous substance had been used against fighters in Mariupol.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the use of chemical weapons would be a further escalation of the conflict while Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said it would be a large-scale violation of international law.

In the face of fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, reinforced by Western weapons, Russian troops have increasingly relied on bombing cities, flattening many urban areas and leaving thousands dead. In other areas they have been withdrawn to reorganize.

Their withdrawal from the cities and towns around the capital, Kiev, led to the discovery of large numbers of massacred civilians, sparking widespread international outrage and accusations against Moscow of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

The war has forced more than 10 million Ukrainians to flee their homes, nearly two-thirds of whom are children.

However, there are fears of even greater atrocities in the coming days, amid signs that the Russian military is preparing for a major offensive in the Donbas. A senior U.S. defense official spoke Monday about a long-distance Russian convoy traveling toward the eastern city of Izyum, backed by artillery, aviation and infantry forces.

During a visit to Russia’s Far East, Mr Putin insisted that the military operation would triumph and that foreign powers would not succeed in isolating Russia.

He said Russia’s economy and financial system had withstood the blow of Western sanctions, and argued that they would backfire, leading to food shortages and rising migration flows to the West.

Donbas has been hit hard by fighting between Russia’s allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and Russia has recognized the separatists’ claims to independence. Military experts say Russian leaders seem to be hoping that local support, logistics and terrain in the region favor Russia’s largest and most armed military, giving its troops the opportunity to change the course of developments in their favor.

Speaking of a battle going on around a steel plant in Mariupol, a separatist official, Russia ally, appeared to have instigated the use of chemical weapons on Monday, saying on Russian state television that separatist forces should take control of the plant by initially blocked all exits.

But Eduard Basurin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Tuesday that separatist forces had not used any chemical weapons in Mariupol.

It was the Ukrainian regiment defending the factory that claimed a drone had dumped a poisonous substance into the city, but added that it was not about serious injuries. The claim of the Azov Regiment, a far-right group already part of the Ukrainian army, could not be independently verified.

Ms Truss said the UK was working urgently to investigate the allegations, while Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the United States could not confirm the announcement.

But Mr. Kirby noted the administration’s continuing concerns about Russia’s potential to use a range of substances in Ukraine, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents. Britain, meanwhile, has warned that Russia could use phosphorus bombs in Mariupol, the use of which in civilian areas is prohibited under international law.

This city has faced some of the most serious attacks that have caused suffering to the civilian population. On the other hand, ground, naval and air attacks by Russian forces fighting to take control of Mariupol have increasingly limited the ability to obtain information about what is happening inside the city./VOA

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