The U.S. will "continue to add sanctions" on Russia in response to the mass killing of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Biden said in brief comments after returning to the White House from Delaware.
Biden did not provide any specifics of the planned sanctions, however, telling reporters, "I'll let you know."
Russian troops killed more than 300 civilians in Bucha as part of their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the country's leaders say, burying many in a mass grave, in an incident reported widely after Russian forces retreated from positions around Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in television interviews and comments to the Romanian Parliament on Monday, said those killed had also been tortured, calling the mass killing a "genocide."
Biden stopped short of using the term genocide when asked about the issue by reporters, but said the mass killing was further evidence that Putin is a "war criminal," calling for a related trial of Putin.
"This guy is brutal," Biden said. "And what's happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone's seen it."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said he was outraged at the "apparent atrocities" in a call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, on Monday, pledging that the U.S. will "use every tool available to document and share information in an effort to hold accountable those responsible," according to a readout of the call released by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Alongside Biden's pledge of additional sanctions, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said at a news conference in Romania on Monday that the U.S. would seek a vote on the suspension of Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, describing its position on the council as a "farce."
And officials from a number of European countries on Monday also accused Russian leaders and its military of "brutality" and war crimes, with both the Spanish and Polish prime ministers backing Zelenskyy's claims that the mass killings were genocide.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said the European Union would send investigators to form a joint investigation team with Ukraine to probe potential war crimes. Lithuania expelled the Russian ambassador in its country and recalled its own ambassador from Moscow, and France and Germany expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.
Like Biden, Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, had called for additional sanctions against Russia in a tweet on Sunday in response to "Putin's rampant violence," while the EU's top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell Fontelles, also said on Monday that the EU would "as a matter of urgency, work on further sanctions against Russia."
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that those sanctions should include Russian coal and oil, although Germany's finance minister, Christian Lindner, suggested that Germany would seek to exclude both oil and natural gas. Germany relies heavily on Russia for both, especially gas, and has previously said it would take some months to secure alternative sources.
In response to the widespread condemnation, Russian officials claimed on Monday that reporters' images and videos of bodies in the streets of Bucha had been faked to stir up anti-Russian sentiment and create a pretext for further sanctions, with Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, saying at a press conference, "We categorically deny any accusations," according to an official translation of his remarks.
--Editing by Karin Roberts.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
