WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) – The United States declined on Wednesday to promise it would open its own investigation into whether Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine, but it will support international efforts to hold Moscow accountable for crimes committed in the part of his offensive.
For the first time on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden called Russian actions in Ukraine “genocide”, a significant escalation in his rhetoric against Moscow.
Asked by journalists, the spokesman for the US State Department, however, refused to say whether Joe Biden’s comments reflected the position of the US government. Ned Price said the head of the White House expressed “an impression” of the “horrible” images from Ukraine.
Washington will consider whether or not to open its own formal investigation into the matter, said US presidential spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Moscow denounced during the day as “unacceptable” the accusations of Joe Biden.
(Report Humeyra Pamuk, Daphne Psaledakis, Alexandra Alper, Trevor Hunnicutt and Kanishka Singh; French version Jean Terzian)