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Topics: Joe Biden, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, World News, no-article-matching
Hannah Smith
Topics: Joe Biden, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, World News, no-article-matching
US president Joe Biden has called for Russian president Vladimir Putin to face trial on war crimes charges.
He also pledged to introduce further sanctions in the wake of new evidence of atrocities committed against civilians in Ukraine.
"I got criticised for calling Putin a war criminal. Well the truth of the matter [is] we saw what happened in Bucha... he is a war criminal," Biden told reporters in Washington DC earlier today (4 April).
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His comments come after graphic photos emerged from Bucha - a suburb of Kyiv recently liberated by Ukrainian forces - showing civilians buried in shallow graves and lying dead in the street after having been indiscriminately killed by Russian forces occupying the city.
Biden appeared to directly blame Putin for the atrocities, saying 'this guy is brutal and what's happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone's seen it.'
Ukrainian authorities have said that the bodies of more than 410 civilians have so far been recovered from towns surrounding Kyiv, including Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, all of which have been the scene of fierce fighting since the start of the invasion.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha this morning and renewed his calls for the west to introduce more sanctions against Russia, describing its actions as a 'genocide.'
"Hundreds of dead people. Peaceful people tortured, and shot dead. Dead bodies on the streets. Mined land. Even the bodies of those who were killed were mined," he said in a speech given ahead of his visit. "I want every mother of every Russian soldier to see the bodies of those who have been killed in Bucha, in Irpin, in Hostomel. What did they do?"
Zelenskyy urged the international community to establish 'special mechanism of justice in Ukraine to investigate every crime of the occupiers on the territory of our country,' saying: "The world has already seen many war crimes, at different times, on different continents. It is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian forces the last manifestation of such evil on Earth."
Biden also cautioned that it was important that evidence be collected ahead of any official charges being laid against Russian forces or Putin himself.
The International Criminal Court has already launched an investigation into allegations of Russian war crimes at the request of more than 39 countries.
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