New Delhi: In a move that will strain diplomatic relations further, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a " war criminal" for attacking Ukraine and also announced an additional $800 million in security aid including weapons to Ukraine.
While talking to reporter at the White House Biden said, "Oh I think he is a war criminal," even initially he responded with a "no" after being probed whether he was ready to call Putin that, according to Reuters.
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This is for the first time Biden has publicly labelled Putin with that term. Last week, during a trip to Poland, Vice President Harris said Russia should "absolutely" be investigated for potential war crimes.
Referring to the statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said Biden was speaking from his heart, however, noted that there is a separate legal process to determine whether Putin has violated international law and committed war crimes. She informed that the process is currently underway at the State Department.
Russia calls Biden comments 'unforgivable', to discuss neutral status for Ukraine,
Russia said the comments were "unforgivable" as it insisted that the war in Ukraine was "going to plan" amid talk of compromise at peace talks. Putin said he would discuss neutral status for Ukraine and that what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise the country was "going to plan".
Meanwhile Biden had said the United States has offered Ukraine $1 billion in security aid in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's urgent appeal to the US Congress for military help to fend off the Russian invasion. Biden added that the US will continue to give Ukraine weapons to fight and defend themselves, offer humanitarian relief and support Ukraine's economy with additional financial assistance, he added.
"This new package on its own is going to provide unprecedented assistance to Ukraine, and includes 800 anti-aircraft systems," Biden said as the efforts are aimed at defending attacks by Russian planes and helicopters.
At Zelenskiy's request, Washington will help Ukraine acquire additional long-range missile anti-aircraft systems, Biden said. It will also supply 9,000 anti-armor systems, drones and 7,000 small arms such as machine guns, shotguns and grenade launchers that will help civilians fighting to defend their country.
"More will be coming as we source additional stocks of equipment that ... we are ready to transfer," he said.