President Biden accuses Russia of committing in Ukraine.
President Biden on Tuesday for the first time accused Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, of perpetrating genocide on the Ukrainian people, but emphasized that was his personal view, not a legal determination.
The remark initially came offhandedly in a speech at a bioethanol plant in Iowa, in which Mr. Biden was announcing measures to counteract rising gas prices. About halfway through the speech, he made reference to Mr. Putin and the war’s economic impact on Americans.
“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away,” Mr. Biden said. It was a marked escalation from statements earlier this month when he said Russian atrocities in the suburbs near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, amounted to war crimes but did not rise to the level of genocide.
On the tarmac later on Tuesday afternoon, as he left Iowa, the president reaffirmed his characterization.
“Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be Ukrainian,” he said.
“We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies,” he added, “but it sure seems that way to me.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has repeatedly accused Russia of genocide, welcomed Mr. Biden’s comments. “True words of a true leader,” he wrote on Twitter. “Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”
Mr. Biden’s comment is not the same as a formal determination of genocide by the U.S. government, which has happened only eight times and triggers legal obligations under the Genocide Convention, which the United States ratified in 1988. States are required to prevent and punish genocide and grant extradition when genocide charges are involved.
In international law, genocide is defined as killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The first three of 20 Bushmasters personnel carriers sent by Australia have arrived in Ukraine, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, said on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelensky had asked for the armored vehicles when he spoke to Australian lawmakers last month, saying that they could help Ukraine substantially.
Zelensky offers to exchange a Russian oligarch for Ukrainians held captive.
In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine rejected President Vladimir V. Putin’s assertion on Tuesday that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine was going “according to the plan,” and offered to exchange a detained pro-Russian politician for Ukrainians being held captive.
Although Russia’s initial offensive near Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, has widely been seen as a failure because its forces failed for weeks to take the city, Mr. Putin said on Tuesday that Russia’s military “operation” was going “according to the plan.” Mr. Putin spoke on Tuesday at a news conference at a spaceport in Russia’s the Far East that appeared to be largely aimed at reinforcing his support at home.
Mr. Zelensky, speaking from Kyiv, asked what kind of plan could account for the heavy casualties suffered by Russian forces since the war began in February. American officials said last month that a conservative estimate put the Russian death toll at more than 7,000.
“Who could approve such a plan?” Mr. Zelensky said. “And what is the final level of their own losses acceptable for this person?”
In his address, he also remarked on the reported capture of a pro-Russian oligarch, Viktor Medvedchuk, by Ukraine’s security service. (The Kremlin spokesman said he could not confirm whether Mr. Medvedchuk had been detained.)
Mr. Zelensky proposed exchanging Mr. Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician seen as the Kremlin’s main agent of influence in Ukraine in recent years, for Ukrainians captured by Russian forces. It was “important that our law enforcement officials and military also consider this possibility,” he added.
Ukraine’s security service said on Tuesday that officers had detained Mr. Medvedchuk, who has long been considered one of Mr. Putin’s closest allies in Ukraine, and who disappeared from Kyiv around the start of the war. Mr. Medvedchuk had been hiding for weeks before trying to escape Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky said.
“Let Medvedchuk be an example for you: Even the former oligarch did not escape,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We will get everyone.”
Mr. Zelensky also said that Ukraine would conduct a full investigation into an unverified claim that Russia had used a possible chemical agent in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. “It is not yet possible to draw 100 percent conclusions,” he said but added that Western leaders should respond proactively regardless.
“The world must respond now — respond preventively,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Because after the use of weapons of mass destruction, any response will not change anything. And it will only look like a humiliation for the democratic world.”
