WASHINGTON DC — President Joe Biden said Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be tried on war crimes charges over the alleged massacre by Russian troops in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, outside of Kyiv.
“We need to know all the details so there can be a war crimes trial,” Biden told reporters upon arriving at the White House from Delaware.
“This guy is brutal and what is happening in Bucha is outrageous,” added the president, who stressed that Putin “should be held accountable” for what happened.
When asked if he thought what happened in Bucha was genocide, Biden said he saw it as a “war crime,” proving he was right when he first called Putin a “war criminal” for his invasion of Ukraine in mid-March.
“You will recall that I was criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. The truth is that you all saw what happened in Bucha. That justifies it, he’s a war criminal, but we have to collect the information,” he stressed.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Monday that the European Union would send investigators to Ukraine to help the prosecutor general there with “documenting war crimes”.
Three plumes of smoke rise from the site of an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
MORE US SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA AFTER BUCHA MASSACRE
He added that he will continue to impose sanctions on Russia, as promised by the European Union (EU), following the “atrocities” committed by Russian forces in several Ukrainian cities from which they have withdrawn.
Ukrainian authorities have reported the discovery of more than 400 bodies in the streets of Bucha in what Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said is “the worst massacre in Europe since World War II”.
This northern Ukraine town near Kyiv was besieged by Russian troops for weeks, and after they left, hundreds of bodies were discovered on its streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, reporters at the scene have documented.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims it has evidence that the Russian army may have committed war crimes in areas under its control, including summary executions of civilians.
The Russian government has categorically denied the involvement of its soldiers in these alleged massacres, including that in Bucha.