US President Joe Biden referred to Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide” for the first time, in an apparent escalation of White House rhetoric against Russia. Speaking at an event in Iowa on Tuesday to boost his government’s efforts to reduce the cost of gasoline for U.S. consumers, Biden said: “Your family budget, your ability to fill your tank, none of that. it must depend on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away. “ The comments signaled a major shift for the US president, who had not previously called the atrocities in Bucha and elsewhere “genocide”, instead of accusing Putin of committing “war crimes”. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters earlier this month that the United States “has not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of the Ukrainian people reach the level of genocide.” Volodymyr Zelensky described Biden’s comments as “the true words of a true leader,” in a tweet addressed to the US president on Twitter. “To say things by name is necessary to resist evil,” the Ukrainian president wrote in his message. True words of a true leader @POTUS. Calling things by their names is necessary to resist evil. We are grateful for the US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities. – Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) April 12, 2022 Biden later commented, telling reporters that “it has become increasingly clear that Putin is simply trying to eliminate the idea of still being.” . . Ukrainian”. “The evidence is growing. . . More evidence is coming out of the literally horrible things the Russians have done in Ukraine, and we will learn more and more about the catastrophe. “We will let the lawyers decide internationally whether they meet the conditions or not, but it certainly seems so to me.”
