US President Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin, a 'war criminal' after his decision to invade Ukraine.
Responding to question from a reporter, the US President said:
"I think he is a war criminal."
Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, said that Biden was 'speaking from his heart' following images on television depicting 'barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country'.
Following Biden's remarks, the Kremlin called the comment an 'unforgivable rhetoric'.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Russian state news agency, Tass:
"We believe such rhetoric to be unacceptable and unforgivable on the part of the head of a state, whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world."
The US President had previously signed off a €723 million security aid package, amounting to a total contribution of more than a billion. The package is aimed at assisting Ukraine's air defence system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, noted that this however is not enough. He said:
"To establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine in order to save people, is it too much to ask? A humanitarian no-fly zone is a condition under which Russia will no longer be able to terrorize our peaceful cities every day and night."
Putin is inflicting appalling devastation and horror on Ukraine — bombing apartment buildings and maternity wards.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022
Yesterday, we saw reports that Russian forces were holding hundreds of doctors and patients hostage.
These are atrocities. It is an outrage to the world.
[Based on reporting by: euronews.]
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