Biden says Russia is committing ‘genocide’; Putin says peace talks at ‘dead end’: April 12 recap
Follow here for the latest updates and news from Wednesday, April 13, as Russia’s invasion continues.
President Joe Biden made a point of calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “genocide” on the same day his counterpart Vladimir Putin said peace talks have reached a “dead end” and the war will continue until Moscow’s goals are accomplished.
Before heading back to the White House from Iowa, Biden told reporters Tuesday that he intentionally said “genocide” when describing Russia’s atrocities against Ukraine, something he had previously avoided.
“It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian,” Biden said.
Putin, speaking at a joint press conference with President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, accused Ukraine of violating agreements made during talks in Istanbul. He once again dismissed images of bodies strewn in Bucha and other cities as staged by Ukraine and said Russia’s total focus is on supporting separatists in the eastern Donbas region.
The war will “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set,” Putin said. He said Russia was forced to invade Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians in the separatists territories of the Donbas region, where Russia is expected to launch a major offensive in the coming days or weeks.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, took issue with Putin’s claims on Twitter: “Russia claimed their goal in is to ‘protect people in Donbas.’ Right now mobile crematoria are burning people’s bodies in #Mariupol, the second largest city of the region. Those who survived are dying from starvation. What are you ‘protecting’ them from? From life?”
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Latest developments:
►Ukrainian officials say fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been detained by the country’s SBU secret service.
►The British Defense Ministry says Russia will likely be ramping up attacks on eastern Ukraine over the next 2-3 weeks. Retired British Gen. Sir Richard Barrons estimated the Russians have probably lost about 25% of the forces they brought to Ukraine. “They’ve had a beating, and they will have only a few weeks to get better,” Barrons said.
►Germany’s president says he wanted to visit Ukraine but “apparently wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” The German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is not welcome because of his close relations with Russia in the past.
►A planned cyberattack by Russian military hackers on the power grid has been foiled, Ukrainian authorities said.
►The World Trade Organization revised its 2022 trade forecast downward to 3% growth from 4.7%, saying the war and continued COVID-19 lockdowns are weighing on world trade.
Biden brands Russia’s actions as ‘genocide’
President Joe Biden on Tuesday described Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine as “genocide,” a word he later said he chose intentionally after previously avoiding it.
“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away,” Biden said during remarks in Menlo, Iowa, where he was announcing plans to reduce gas prices.
Before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, D.C., Biden said it has become increasingly clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to eradicate the notion of Ukrainian citizenship. Putin has long resented that Ukraine gained independence as the Soviet Union split up on 1991.
Biden said the evidence against Russia is mounting and looks different than last week, when he labeled the invaders’ brutality “a war crime” but not genocide. The president last week called for a war crimes trial against Putin and announced more sanctions against Russia following reports of barbaric acts.
“More evidence is coming out literally of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine,” Biden said. “We’re gonna only learn more and more about the devastation and we’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said that Russia’s attacks in Ukraine have amounted to a genocide.
— Rebecca Morin
Pentagon meets with weapons makers to discuss supplies for a years-long war
Pentagon officials will discuss restocking their arsenal and the possible need to supply Ukraine with weapons for a war that may last years as they meet Wednesday with leaders of the top eight U.S. military contractors, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The efforts to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion have reduced the U.S. weapons stockpile and the Pentagon wants to talk about its role in solving supply issues, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters Tuesday.
Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the mayor said, as Western nations warned a convoy was on the move for a suspected Russian assault in Ukraine’s east. The city is crucial to Russia’s effort to link Crimea with the Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have established de facto republics that even Russia only recognized days before the war broke out.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Russian forces have blocked weeks of attempted humanitarian convoys into the city in part to conceal the carnage. Boychenko also said the death toll in Mariupol alone could surpass 20,000.
Boychenko also gave new details of allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the corpses.
banning the importation of oil from Russia and ending normal trade relations with the country, while European Union nations agreed to new sanctions on Russia that include a ban on importing its coal.
Contributing: The Associated Press