U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes and insisted on further sanctions against Moscow, following reports of killings of many civilians in a Ukrainian town formerly occupied by Russian troops.
"You saw what happened in Bucha," Biden told reporters in Washington, referring to the town near Kyiv where bodies were seen scattered in the streets in footage and images that emerged after the withdrawal of Russian forces. "He is a war criminal."
While refusing to label the situation genocide, Biden said more information and details need to be gathered so that Putin can be tried for war crimes.
"He should be held accountable...I'm going to continue to add sanctions," he said.
Further punitive measures, which are being coordinated with U.S. allies and partners, will be announced later this week, according to the White House.
Biden called Putin a war criminal for the first time in March, following the launch of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The U.S. government also said in March that it assessed the Russian military had committed war crimes in the Eastern European country, pointing to numerous reports of indiscriminate assaults and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.
The situation in Bucha, which came to light over the weekend, sparked condemnation from around the world. Media reported that bodies of civilians were found with bound hands and close-range gunshot wounds.
Following fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces, a majority of Russian forces that had been arrayed against Kyiv have begun to retreat, leading the Pentagon to assess that the likelihood the capital will be taken has diminished for now.
Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan noted that Russia is currently revising its war aims and is repositioning its forces to concentrate its offensive operations in eastern and parts of southern Ukraine, rather than targeting wider swathes of territory.
"The next stage of this conflict may very well be protracted," he told a press conference, adding that it could be "measured in months or longer."
Sullivan said the International Criminal Court is one venue at which war crimes can be tried, but that "there have been other examples in other conflicts of other mechanisms being set up."
The United States is not a party to the ICC.
Biden was cautious to label the civilian deaths in Bucha a genocide, Sullivan said, as the U.S. government has "not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people rise to the level" that amounts to that.
But he said Washington will continue to monitor the situation.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Moscow of committing "genocide," but the Russian Defense Ministry has denied a raft of allegations.
