Biden denounces Putin as ‘war criminal’ after Russian murders of Ukrainian civilians revealed

President Joe Biden speaks to the media at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Monday, April 4, 2022, as he returns to Washington and the White House after spending the weekend in Wilmington, Del. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)
President Joe Biden speaks to the media at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Monday, April 4, 2022, as he returns to Washington and the White House after spending the weekend in Wilmington, Del. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – As the Russian military command, under pressure from Ukrainians—both the army and the people—begins repositioning forces, leaving areas around the capital of Kiev, their retreat has revealed the brutalities that the Russian army has inflicted on the Ukrainian population.

US President Joe Biden has called for war crimes prosecutions while denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal.”

As the Associated Press reported on Monday, “Moscow faced global revulsion and accusations of war crimes,” following Russia’s pullout from areas around Kiev “revealed streets, buildings and yards strewn with corpses,” many of them “battered or burned” and “left out in the open or hastily buried.”

“This guy [Putin] is brutal,” Biden said, with images coming out of areas north of Kiev in mind. “What’s happening in Bucha is outrageous,” he affirmed, “and everyone’s seen it.”

European Commission President Ursala Von der Leyen spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then issued a similar statement denouncing “the dreadful murders.”

“The harrowing images cannot and will not be left unanswered,” she stated. “The perpetrators of these heinous crimes must not go unpunished.”

“There are very clear clues pointing to war crimes,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in the same vein as he affirmed, “It is more or less established that the Russian army is responsible.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also denounced Russian actions in Ukraine. He described the pictures coming out of Bucha as “terrible and horrifying,” saying, “These crimes committed by the Russian military must be relentlessly investigated,” and “the perpetrators and those who commissioned them must be held consistently accountable.”

The Prime Minister of Poland, which neighbors Ukraine and has taken in nearly 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees, the largest number of any country, spoke even more strongly. He denounced Putin’s Russia as a “totalitarian-fascist state.” He also likened the Russian leader to Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, the Cambodian leader under whom some two million Cambodians perished.

More Details of Russian Atrocities

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price began Monday’s press briefing by detailing the atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

“The world has been shocked by the horrifying images of the Kremlin’s brutality in Bucha and other cities near Kiev,” Price stated. “Civilians, many with their hands tied, apparently executed in the streets. Others in mass graves,” he continued. “We are seeing credible reports of torture, rape, and civilians executed alongside their families.”

As the British newspaper, The Guardian explained, “Women across Ukraine are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war as growing evidence of sexual violence emerges from areas retaken from retreating Russian forces.”

As those forces have withdrawn from areas around Kiev, “Women and girls have come forward to tell the police, media and human rights organizations of atrocities they have suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers,” The Guardian reported.

“Gang-rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint, and rapes committed in front of children are among the grim testimonies collected by investigators,” it said.

The UN Security Council is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the allegations of Russian atrocities in Ukraine. President Zelensky is scheduled to address the body. It will be the first time since the crisis began that he does so.