Russia Attacks Places Where 1,200 Women And Children Take Shelter, Ukraine's Defense Minister Asks EU To Admit Vladimir Putin Is War Criminal

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told European Union (EU) lawmakers on Wednesday they should recognize Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"I call on all European parliamentarians to admit that Putin is a war criminal," Reznikov said via video link.

He cited examples such as what he said was a Russian air strike on a theater on Wednesday, where he said 1,200 women and children took refuge.

Meanwhile, Russia denies targeting civilians and the defense ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday it did not attack the theatre.

As previously reported, US resident Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Wednesday "unforgivable", the Kremlin said while insisting a war in Ukraine "will be planned" amid compromise talks on peace talks.

"He is a war criminal," President Biden told reporters.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. (Wikimedia Commons/Y27)

"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."

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

Separately, 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 programme.

The EU has not yet gone as far as President Biden. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on March 10 said the bombing of a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine may constitute a war crime.