Related video: Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’
A Kremlin spokesman has said that comments Joe Biden made on Wednesday, in which he accused the Russian president of committing war crimes, were “unacceptable”.
Dmitry Peskov’s condemnation of the US president came moments after Mr Biden told a reporter at the White House that Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal” on account of attacks his troops have made during the invasion of Ukraine. Mr Peskov rebuked the accusations as “unforgivable rhetoric”.
Hours earlier, Sergei Orlov, the deputy mayor of Mariupol, said a theatre where more than 1,000 of the besieged city’s residents – including women and children – had been sheltering was bombed by Russia. While the number of casualties was still not known, Mr Orlov estimated that up to 1,2000 people could have been there when the attack took place.
Russia’s defence ministry has denied responsibility, instead accusing the Azov Battalion, a far-right Ukrainian militia, of blowing up the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama. It did not give evidence to back up the claim.
