On April 12, President Joe Biden described Russia’s campaign in Ukraine as “genocide,” accusing President Vladimir Putin of attempting to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”
Mr. Biden said he meant it when he claimed at an earlier event that Mr. Putin was committing genocide against Ukraine, speaking in Iowa soon before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. He told reporters, “Yes, I called it genocide.” “It’s becoming increasingly evident that Putin is simply attempting to eradicate the concept of being a Ukrainian.” Mr. Biden went on to say that attorneys would have to decide if Russia’s actions fit the international criteria for genocide, but “it sure seems that way to me.”
More evidence of horrific things Russia’s war
“More and more evidence of the horrific things that the Russians have done in Ukraine is coming out, and we’re only going to discover more and more about the damage and let the lawyers decide whether or not it qualifies,” he added. Mr. Biden earlier stated that he did not believe Russia’s conduct constituted genocide, but rather “war crimes.”
Past American presidents have avoided explicitly designating murderous campaigns like Russia’s in Ukraine as genocide, fearing that doing so would trigger an international genocide convention that binds member countries to intervene once genocide is formally identified. This requirement was perceived as preventing President Bill Clinton from labeling the slaughter of 8,00,000 ethnic Tutsis by Rwandan Hutus in 1994 as genocide.