Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin in Moscow, Russia March 2, 2022.
Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Reuters
President Joe Biden said Monday that evidence needs 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.
“I think it is a war crime … He should be held accountable.”
Biden also said that he plans to seek additional sanctions on Russia for its conduct during the war, which began with the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters upon arrival at Fort McNair in Washington, DC on April 4, 2022.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said that Russian forces of committing genocide, with Ukrainian people were “destroyed and exterminated.”
Bucha’s mayor has said about 300 residents of the town had been killed at the time that fighters from Chechnya controlled the area.
Russia has denied allegations that its troops killed civilians in Bucha.
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