President Joe Biden on Monday called for evidence to be gathered to put Russian leader Vladimir Putin on trial for war crimes related to his nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
“He is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin, on the heels of reports of mass killings of civilians by Russian-controlled troops in the town of Bucha, northwest of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it,” Biden told reporters, a day after video and still images revealed the town’s streets littered with dead bodies.
“I think it is a war crime. … He should be held accountable.” Biden also said he plans to slap additional sanctions on Russia for its conduct during the war, which began with an invasion on Feb. 24. “I’ll let you know,” the president replied when a reporter asked him the nature of those expected sanctions.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later Monday told reporters at the White House that sanctions would be announced this week. “Russia will pay a severe price,” Sullivan said. “We have communicated to them directly. We have coordinated with our allies and partners and I’m not going to go for the specifics here.”
Almost 300 people were buried in a mass grave in Bucha, a commuter town northwest of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, its mayor said Saturday after the Ukrainian army retook control of the key town from Russia only to find corpses strewn throughout the community.
“In Bucha, we have already buried 280 people in mass graves,” Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told AFP by phone. He said the destroyed town’s streets are littered with corpses. In one residential street, the bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found strewn over an area of several hundred yards.
Graphic videos and photos of that street and others in the community circulated online. One showed a man’s body with his hands tied behind his back, and an open Ukrainian passport lay on the ground beside him. Another had a gaping head wound. Two lay near bicycles and a third was next to an abandoned car. Some lay face up, with their limbs askew, while others were lying face down.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was appalled by atrocities in Bucha and voiced support for the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into potential war crimes in Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia on Sunday of carrying out a deliberate “massacre” in the town and called on the G7 to impose “devastating” new sanctions on Moscow.
“We are still gathering and looking for bodies, but the number has already gone into the hundreds. “Dead bodies lie on the streets. They killed civilians while staying there and when they were leaving these villages and towns,” his ministry quoted him as saying on Twitter.
Other world leaders rushed to accuse Moscow of war crimes but Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations. nThe photos show the widespread destruction and horrific actions of the Russian armies amidst fears this is only the beginning.
