Joe Biden Says President Putin A War Crime, Kremlin Furious: Their Bombs Killed Hundreds Of Thousands

JAKARTA - The Kremlin cannot forgive statements by US President Joe Biden who called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

"It is unacceptable and inexcusable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, March 17.

Dmitry Peskov said the logic that President Joe Biden was building was simply absurd. In fact, the United States bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

"We consider the rhetoric of the head of state unacceptable and inexcusable, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world," he said.

In a brief conversation with reporters on Wednesday morning, Biden was asked if he believed Putin was a war criminal.

At first Biden said no. But he then asked the reporter to repeat the question.

"I thought he was a war criminal," Biden said at the time.

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.