WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden used the word “genocide” for the first time Tuesday to describe the war in Ukraine.
The President made the remark while discussing his administration’s efforts to curb soaring gasoline prices following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m doing everything in my power to bring prices down and deal with the price cut that Putin caused,” Biden said at a rally in the farm state of Iowa.
“The budgets of their families, their ability to fill the tank, none of it should depend on a dictator on the other side of the world declaring war and committing genocide,” he added, referring to Putin and Ukraine.
Biden has in recent weeks attacked Putin, whom he calls a “butcher,” and accused the Kremlin of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
The press asked Biden last week if he would describe the Bucha massacre on the outskirts of Kyiv, where more than 250 civilians turned up after Russian troops withdrew, as genocide.
“No, I think it’s a war crime,” the president then replied.
There is a bureaucratic process within the US government to determine whether genocide is being committed in a country, and it is not clear if this process has been completed or is taking place.
The US State Department last month completed a formal investigation finding that Russian troops committed war crimes in Ukraine, an allegation that could lead to prosecution in US courts and other international proceedings.
On February 24, the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, and since then, according to the United Nations, the war has left thousands dead, more than four million refugees and some seven million internally displaced.