President Joe Biden on Wednesday publicly called President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time, using a loaded phrase that the White House had avoided throughout Russia’s 21-day-old invasion of Ukraine.
Asked at a crowded White House event whether he would call Putin a war criminal, Biden said no, but returned moments later to change his answer.
“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said, waving his right hand, and then turning away from reporters blurting out questions.
Other world leaders have leveled the charge against Putin, who is waging a savage war on his democratic neighbor.
After Russia bombed a maternity ward in Mariupol last week, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, called the act “barbaric” but declined to call it a war crime.
“There’s a legal review process that the United States undergoes to make considerations of labeling something as a war crime,” Psaki told reporters last week. “We need to go through the legal assessment and review in order to make a formal conclusion.”
On Wednesday, Psaki suggested Biden’s proclamation was the product of the president’s sincere opinion, not a legal analysis.
“The president’s remarks speak for themselves,” Psaki said. “He was speaking from his heart and speaking from what he’s seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country.”
“There is a legal process that is underway,” Psaki added, noting that the State Department is continuing its review.
President Andrzej Duda of Poland has said it is “obvious” that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the Kremlin’s use of munitions “fully qualifies as a war crime.”
The International Criminal Court said two weeks ago that it would begin a probe of the invasion.
The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement at the time that there was a “reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine.”
The invasion has gotten far bloodier since then, with more civilians targeted by Russian artillery.
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