Biden: Putin should face war crimes trial
The Kremlin has strongly rejected the accusations that Russian troops committed atrocities against civilians
WASHINGTON/BUCHA: US President Joe Biden on Monday called for a war crimes trial against Russia President Vladimir Putin and said he’d seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.
“You saw what happened in Bucha,” Biden said. He added that Putin “is a war criminal”.
Biden’s comments to reporters came after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Bucha, one of the towns surrounding Kyiv where Ukrainian officials say the bodies of civilians have been found. Zelensky called the Russian actions “genocide” and called for the West to apply tougher sanctions against Russia.
Biden, however, stopped short of calling the actions genocide.
The bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyivarea towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, said. AP journalists saw the bodies of at least 21 people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital.
“We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to gather all the detail so this can be an actual - have a war crimes trial,” Biden said.
“What’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone sees it,” Biden added.
White House officials said talks about ramping up new sanctions against Russia intensified after reports of alleged atrocities emerged. Biden said Monday that he would continue to add sanctions but did not detail what sectors the US may target next.
War crimes probe
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, tweeted on Monday that he European Union will send investigators to Ukraine to help the local prosecutor general “document war crimes.”
A Russian law enforcement agency says it has launched its own investigation into allegations that Ukrainian civilians were massacred in suburbs of Kyiv that were held by Russian troops, focusing on what it calls “false information” about Russian forces.
The Investigative Committee claims Ukrainian authorities made the allegations “with the aim of discrediting Russian troops” and that those involved should be investigated over possible breaches of a new Russian law banning what the government deems to be false information about its forces.
“We categorically reject all allegations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said.
Investigations into Putin’s actions had begun before the new allegations of atrocities outside Kyiv. The US and more than 40 other countries are working together to investigate possible violations and abuses, after the passage of a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish a commission of inquiry. There is another probe by the International Criminal Court, an independent body based in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Biden’s chief envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda ThomasGreenfield, announced on Monday that the US plans to seek a suspension of Russia from its seat on the UN’s top human rights body in the wake of more indications Russian forces may have committed war crimes in Ukraine. That would require a decision by the UN General Assembly.
Russia and the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France and the United States – all currently have seats on the 47-member-state rights council, which is based in Geneva. The United States rejoined the council this year.
Effect on talks
Russia said it had requested a UN Security Council meeting on Monday because of what Moscow called Kyiv’s attempts to disrupt peace talks and escalate violence with a “provocation” in Bucha. But Britain’s mission to the UN said that request had been denied and that the Council would discuss Ukraine on Tuesday.
Zelensky in Bucha said it had become harder for his country to negotiate with Russia since Kyiv became aware of the scale of atrocities carried out by Russian troops in Ukraine.
“It’s very difficult to talk when you see what they’ve done here,” he said. “The longer the Russian Federation drags out the negotiating process, the worse it is for them and for this situation and for this war.”
“We know of thousands of people killed and tortured, with severed limbs, raped women and murdered children,” he said.
Germany expels envoys
Germany on Monday expelled a “significant number” of Russian diplomats in what foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called a response to the “unbelievable brutality” the Kremlin had unleashed in Ukraine.
The move, AFP has learned, involves 40 envoys and follows similar moves by European partners in recent days as a reaction to Russia’s war on its neighbour.
Energy sanctions?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Putin and his supporters would “feel the consequences” of events in Bucha.
Western allies would agree on further sanctions against Moscow in coming days, he said, though it was not clear how quickly a new package could come together or if it would included Russian energy exports.
Germany’s defence minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union must discuss banning Russian gas - a departure from Berlin’s prior resistance to that idea. France’s Macron said new sanctions were needed, including on oil and coal, and there were very “clear clues pointing to war crimes” by Russian forces.