FACE OFF:

Russian President Vladimir PUTIN is a WAR CRIMINAL-United States President, Joe Biden

… ‘It is Unacceptable, Unforgiven that U.S. designate us a Criminal, you have no Right to lecture us on war crimes’ says Russian Government

*‘Any Russian who opposes our on-going military occupation of Ukraine is a Traitor of Russian Federation, we should spit such enemy out and treat that person as such. Our battle is going according to plan. These Russian expatriates are traitors living large in Miami, French Rivera, ready to sell their own mother out for money. We are not fighting a war, but reclaiming the land that originally belong to us in old Soviet Union’-PUTIN, Russian President

*We are immediately making available to Ukraine anti-aircraft, anti-armor systems, weapons; switchblade drones and other forms of military assistance-United States Government

*BY YOSHIR NASIR/Special Correspondent inside Ukraine

THERE IS ONMIOUS sign everywhere that the ongoing war in Ukraine caused by Russia is daily leading to genocide, death, inflation and crimes against humanity committed in the eyes of everyone by Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Without mincing word, the United States government has called out the Kremlin leader as a ‘War Criminal’, on Wednesday, a rhetorical leap that came as civilian deaths mount in Ukraine.

It was the harshest condemnation of Putin’s actions from any US official since the war in Ukraine began three weeks ago. Previously, Biden had stopped short of labeling atrocities being documented on the ground in Ukraine as “war crimes,” citing ongoing international and US investigations.

But on Wednesday, speaking with reporters at an unrelated event, Biden affixed the designation on the Russian leader.

 “I think he is a war criminal,” the President said after remarks at the White House.

The shift from the administration’s previous stance came after an emotional address to Congress from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who aired a video showing Ukrainians suffering amid Russia’s onslaught. Zelensky asked American lawmakers and Biden for more help defending itself, including a no-fly zone and fighter jets.

Biden responded in his own address a few hours later, laying out new American military assistance to Ukraine-including anti-aircraft and anti-armor systems, weapons and drones — but stopping short of acceding to Zelensky’s requests. Still, Biden acknowledged the horrors transpiring on the ground.

“We saw reports that Russian forces were holding hundreds of doctors and patients hostage in the largest hospital in Mariupol,” Biden said. “These are atrocities. They’re an outrage to the world. And the world is united in our support for Ukraine and our determination to make Putin pay a very heavy price.”

It wasn’t until a few hours after that that Biden responded to a question about Putin being a war criminal. Biden initially said “no,” but immediately returned to a group of reporters to clarify what had been asked. When asked again whether Putin was a war criminal, he answered in the affirmative.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Biden’s remarks were “absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable.”

Officials, including Biden, had previously avoided saying war crimes were being committed in Ukraine, citing ongoing investigations into whether that term could be used. Other world leaders have not been as circumspect, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said last week war crimes were being committed. The International Criminal Court at the Hague has also opened an investigation into war crimes. And the US Senate unanimously asked for an international investigation into war crimes on Tuesday. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week that actions committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people” constitute war crimes”, marking the first time a senior US official directly accused Moscow of war crimes since last month’s attack on Ukraine began. In Poland last week, Vice President Kamala Harris called for international investigations into war crimes and made clear she believed atrocities were underway. She said the intentional targeting of civilians would constitute war crimes.

After Biden delivered his assessment, the White House said the administration’s investigation into war crimes would continue.

“The President’s remarks speak for themselves,” press secretary Jen Psaki said. She said Biden was “speaking from the heart.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price echoed Psaki later Wednesday, telling CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” that “when you are speaking from the heart, speaking as a human and you’re seeing what we’ve all seen, these searing images on TV, a Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, strikes against residential buildings, against schools, against civilian neighborhoods, it’s hard not to walk away with that conclusion.”

“What we are doing here at the State Department, we are collecting every single piece of information, we’re evaluating it, we’re documenting it and sharing it with our partners. There is a process that is involved in this and there are people working almost around the clock to document, evaluate, share as we all watch what is happening with some horror.”

Pressed as to how Putin’s actions don’t currently amount to war crimes, Price reiterated that “there is a formal process here at the department under international humanitarian law to document war crimes. We’re involved in that.”

While the term “war crimes” is often used colloquially — as Biden appeared to be doing Wednesday — they do have a legal definition that could be used in potential prosecution. That includes in the Geneva Convention, which specifies intentional targeting of civilians as a war crime.

Yet in order to prosecute a war crime, solid evidence is required. And for Russian officials to be held accountable, they would need to travel outside of the country.

Still, an official designation of war crimes — backed up with evidence — would still present the West with a symbolic tool in framing Putin’s actions in Ukraine.

Biden has come under increasing pressure to do more to help besieged Ukrainians as Russia’s campaign intensifies. On Wednesday, a theater in Mariupol where civilians were sheltering was bombed, the latest example of Russia’s indiscriminate shelling.

The pressure was only likely to increase after Zelensky’s dramatic appeal to lawmakers for more help. He compared what is happening in Ukraine to Pearl Harbor and September 11 and said “we need you right now” to offer more support.

Biden watched the address from the library of his private residence, and later called it a “convincing” and “significant” speech.

“Putin is inflicting appalling, appalling devastation and horror on Ukraine, bombing apartment buildings, maternity wards, hospitals,” he said afterward. “I mean, it’s godawful.”

Next week, Biden plans to travel to Brussels for an extraordinary session of NATO leaders, where he hopes to demonstrate western unity amid Russia’s aggression.

 

Kremlin Tells Biden: U.S. Has No Right to Lecture Russia on War Crimes:

The Kremlin said on Wednesday Joe Biden’s claim that President Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal” for invading Ukraine was an unforgivable remark by the leader of a country which had killed civilians in conflicts across the world.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced more than 3 million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

In an exchange with a reporter on Wednesday, Biden said, “Oh I think he is a war criminal,” after initially responding with a “no” to a question about whether he was ready to call Putin that.

“Our president is a very wise, prescient and cultured international figure and head of the Russian Federation, our head of state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about Biden’s remark.

“Such statements by Biden are absolutely impermissible, unacceptable and unforgivable,” Peskov said. “The main thing is that the head of a state which has for many years bombed people across the world… the president of such a country has no right to make such statements.”

Peskov said the United States had bombed defeated Japan in 1945, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later, ending World War Two.

Around 200,000 people were killed instantly by the bombs and many more died from radiation sickness.

MIGHT OF RUSSIA:

Russia warned the United States on Thursday that Moscow had the might to put the world’s pre-eminent superpower in its place and accused the West of stoking a wild Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said the United States had stoked “disgusting” Russophobia to force Russia to its knees.

“It will not work – Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place,” Medvedev said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States and its European and Asian allies have slapped sanctions on Russian leaders, companies and businessmen, cutting off Russia from much of the world economy.

Putin says that what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia, and Russia had to defend against the “genocide” of Russian-speaking people by Kyiv.

Ukraine says it is fighting for its existence and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. The West says claims it wants to rip Russia apart are fiction.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told European Union lawmakers on Wednesday that they should recognise Putin as a war criminal.

Russia says that despite sanctions it can fare well without what it casts as a deceitful and decadent West and that it will develop ties with other powers such as China.

Putin says Russians living large in Miami, French Riviera are traitors to the motherland

Russians living in Miami and the French Riviera “who cannot do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms” are traitors to their homeland, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, dismissing the effects of Western sanctions on Russian nationals with real estate assets overseas. U.S. and European sanctions have decimated the value of the Russian ruble since Putin ordered a brutal military invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago, sending the nation’s economy into a tailspin.

Western powers are betting “on national traitors — on those who earn money here, with us, but live there,” Putin said, speaking at a meeting with regional leaders on the economic fallout from the crisis.

He accused Russian expatriates living abroad as “ready to sell their own mother,” sympathizing more with the West because they are “mentally located precisely there, and not here, not with our people, not with Russia.” “I am not at all judging those who have a villa in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms,” he said. “This is what they think — in their opinion — a sign of belonging to a higher caste, to a higher race.”

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