WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden is calling for a war crimes trial following reports of civilian casualties in Bucha, Ukraine.
"What's happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone's seen it," Biden said on Monday.
Biden criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, once again calling him a "war criminal."
Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around Kyiv, including Bucha, after they were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia needs to move quickly to negotiate an agreement to end the war.
Speaking on a visit Monday to Bucha, Zelenskyy said the evidence of atrocities makes it hard to conduct talks with Russia.
“It’s very difficult to conduct negotiations when you see what they did here,” Zelenskyy said, adding that in Bucha and other places “dead people have been found in barrels, basements, strangled, tortured.”
Zelenskyy also reaffirmed his criticism of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s opposition to Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, saying that she and other Western leaders who resisted the move should come to Bucha to “see what the flirting with the Russian Federation leads to.”
Western countries have criticized Russia for the deaths in Bucha and have vowed to add more sanctions.
A Russian law enforcement agency says it has launched its own investigation into the deaths in Bucha.
The Investigative Committee claims Ukrainian authorities made the allegations “with the aim of discrediting Russian troops” and that those involved should be investigated over possible breaches of a new Russian law banning what the government deems to be false information about its forces.
