Ukraine conflict: Biden brands Putin a ‘war criminal’

US President Joe Biden has branded Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” in a move likely to further escalate diplomatic tensions.

Biden delivered the comment off the cuff in response to a question from a reporter at the White House.

It is the first time he has used such language to condemn President Putin, and the White House later said he was “speaking from the heart.”

The Kremlin, however, called it “unforgivable rhetoric.”

“We believe that such rhetoric is unacceptable and inexcusable from the head of state, whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state news agency Tass.

The exchange in Washington occurred on Wednesday when a reporter asked the US president: “Mr. President, after everything we’ve seen, are you ready to call Putin a war criminal?”

The president answered “no” before being questioned, and then changed his answer: “You asked me if I would say…? Oh, I think he’s a war criminal.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said the president had been speaking from the heart after seeing “barbaric” footage of the violence in Ukraine, rather than making an official statement.

He noted that there was a separate legal process, led by the State Department, to determine war crimes, and that it was underway separately.

The president’s official Twitter account posted: “Putin is inflicting appalling devastation and horror on Ukraine: bombing apartment buildings and maternity wards…these are atrocities. It is an outrage to the world.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier delivered a speech via video link to Congress, receiving a standing ovation. Hours later, Biden approved additional arms aid for Ukraine, bringing the total US contribution to $1 billion (£760 million).

One by one, the diplomatic bridges between the United States and Russia are burning.

Biden’s statement was odd, though not out of character for a politician who has a history of making monumental policy changes in seemingly offhand remarks (see, for example, his comments on gay marriage in 2012).

After initially telling a reporter that he didn’t think Putin was a criminal, he went back and recanted. If there was an internal debate in the White House about how to handle the growing calls in Congress and the press to condemn Putin in this way, the president resolved it in an aside, not in a set speech.

This, of course, will make it difficult for Biden and his administration to work with the Russians in the future. Any concession or negotiated agreement, on whatever subject, will invite a retort: ​​How can you associate with a criminal?

Perhaps Mr. Biden, in his comments, was simply acknowledging the new reality: that the world political order has changed irrevocably and there is no going back to the way things were.