President Biden Calls President Putin A War Criminal, Britain Wants To Be Dragged To International Court

President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Wednesday "unforgivable", the Kremlin said, insisting a war in Ukraine "will be planned" amid compromise talks at peace talks.

Moscow has yet to capture one of Ukraine's biggest cities after the invasion that began on February 24, the biggest offensive on a European country since World War Two, raising fears of a wider conflict in the West unthinkable for decades.

President Putin on Wednesday said he was ready to discuss a neutral status for Ukraine, but what he called a "special military operation" for the demilitarization and denazification of the country "is going as planned" justified by the need to enforce Russia's security. Ukraine and the West say Moscow carried out the attack without reason.

Kremlin forces continue to bombard besieged towns, including intensified shelling in the capital Kyiv, as more than 3 million Ukrainians have fled and hundreds died.

The United States is offering an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine to fight Russia, with a new package including drones and anti-armor systems.

"More will come as we get additional stock of equipment that we are ready to transfer," said Biden, who later condemned President Putin.

"He is a war criminal," he told reporters.

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the comments were "unacceptable and inexcusable rhetoric", according to the TASS news agency.

President Biden responded in his own speech hours later, providing new American military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft and anti-armor defense systems, weapons and drones.

"We are seeing reports that Russian troops are holding hundreds of doctors and patients hostage in the largest hospital in Mariupol," President Biden said, acknowledging the horrors that occurred.

"These are atrocities. They are the anger of the world. And the world is united in our support for Ukraine and our determination to make Putin pay a very heavy price."

After President Biden delivered his assessment, the White House said the administration's investigation into war crimes would continue.

"The President's own statement," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. He said President Biden "speaks from the heart."

Earlier, British Health Minister Sajid Javid said President Putin would be held accountable for war crimes at the International Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.

Minister Javid said Vladimir Putin would be "responsible" for war crimes in Ukraine at the international criminal tribunal in The Hague, with Britain helping to gather the necessary evidence.

Britain's Justice Secretary Dominic Raab traveled to The Hague on Monday to help ensure "when the prosecution comes, the court will have what it needs," Javid said on BBC One's Breakfast program.

Minister Javid was asked for his response to news that a pregnant woman shown in widely used photos on a stretcher from a bombed maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was reported dead, as was her baby.

"It fills me with anger to see something like that. These are horrific atrocities perpetrated against innocent civilians in Ukraine by Russia," Javid said, saying the World Health Organization had documented 31 attacks so far on health facilities.

"This is a war crime and Putin will be held accountable," he added. Asked how, Javid said: "He will ultimately be held accountable by an international tribunal."

It is known that the term 'war crime' is often used in everyday language, having legal definitions that can be used in potential prosecutions. It is included in the Geneva Conventions, which stipulates the intentional targeting of civilians as a war crime.

However, to prosecute war crimes, strong evidence is needed. And for Russian officials to be held accountable, they must travel abroad.