Joe Biden Accuses Russia of Committing Genocide, Moscow Terms It Unacceptable

He told reporters that Russian President Putin is "just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian."

United States (US) President Joe Biden stated for the first time that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is tantamount to genocide on Tuesday, 12 April.

While speaking at an event in Iowa on fuel prices, Reuters reported the President as saying, "Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away."

Afterward, he told reporters, "Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to his American counterpart's comments with a tweet calling Biden's remarks "true words of a true leader."

True words of a true leader @POTUS. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 12, 2022

'Unacceptable,' Says Moscow

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, 13 April, that it was "unacceptable" for Biden to label Russia's actions in Ukraine as a genocide.

"We categorically disagree and consider unacceptable any attempt to distort the situation in this way, especially since it is hardly acceptable for the president of the United States," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, as per AFP report.

Peskov also said that that the US is a "country that has committed well-known deeds in modern and recent history."

Unlike Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan have not described Russia's assault on Ukraine as genocide.

On the contrary, Sullivan had told reporters last week, "We have seen war crimes. We have not seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide."

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US State Department has formally used the term "genocide" to describe massacres in seven instances:

• Bosnia

• Rwanda

• Iraq

• Darfur

• ISIS attacks on Yazidis

• China

• Myanmar

Genocide, according to the United Nations, constitutes "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP.)