Fourth Week of Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Biden Calls Russian President Putin a ‘War Criminal’

It’s been 22 days since Russian troops invaded Ukraine and the war is still going on. The mighty Kremlin may have miscalculated the war proposition as the Kyiv army is still holding the ground and defending their country against Russia’s all out attacks.  

Ukraine government claimed Russian forces have bombed a theatre in besieged port city of Mariupol in which more than a thousand people had taken shelter. However, Russia’s defence ministry has denied targeting civilians. The defence ministry officials said its forces had not struck the theatre building.

This bomb shelter beneath a drama theater appeared to have withstood a Russian airstrike as Ukrainian lawmaker Serhiy Taruta said some survivors emerged from it. He wrote this on his official Facebook account, “After a terrible night of uncertainty, on the morning of the 22nd day of the war finally good news from Mariupol! The bomb shelter has held,”

Meanwhile, another parliamentarian from an opposition Holos party who has always fought against arming civilians said Russian forces' attacks on civilian targets like schools, hospitals and homes have only made them stronger to fight back the enemy forces. She took to Twitter sharing a video which documents the Russian attacks on Mariupol saying 80-90% of the city of 400,000 population is bombed. 

#WarDay #22 #Mariupol will be no more. 80-90% of the city bombed or damaged somehow. 400K people city and only 2K children evacuated. Mariupol is destroyed from the sky. #NoFlyZone much needed pic.twitter.com/W3s9hLFrXN

— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) March 17, 2022

Earlier on Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Russia to suspend its military offensive in Ukraine. Unfazed by the world court’s order, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Western countries “economic blitzkrieg” has failed to achieve it’s goal. He admitted the situation is ‘not easy’ for the Kremlin, but maintained that Russia’s invasion was going as per plan. In the meantime, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are continuing online. The Interfax news agency quoted a Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, “Russia’s conditions were extremely clear, spelled out and fully brought to the attention of the Ukrainian negotiators.”

In a move which will further strain relations between Washington and Moscow, US President Joe Biden has labelled Russian leader Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’. Joe made this off-the-cuff remark while responding to a reporter’s question at the White House. Moscow has reacted strongly to Biden's comment saying, this ‘rhetoric is unacceptable and unforgivable.’