US President Joe Biden. File photoWASHINGTON, Apr 16US President Joe Biden's statements about «genocide» in Ukraine are not supported by US intelligence data and have caused concern in his own administration, NBC News reports. Biden on Tuesday twice called «genocide» the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine. The White House later explained that the statement reflects the president's vision of the situation on the ground and the view that Russian President Vladimir Putin «is trying to erase the very idea of being Ukrainian.» The Kremlin responded by saying it considered «attempts to distort the situation like this» unacceptable. NBC News quoted unnamed officials as saying intelligence reports on the situation in Ukraine «do not support» definitions of genocide. ethnic group or nation, and so far this is not what we see,» the TV channel quotes a US intelligence official. when to qualify Russia's actions in Ukraine as «genocide,» especially the legal threshold for doing so, has been debated in the White House since footage of the mass graves, torture, and killing of civilians in Bucha surfaced, people familiar with the debate say. Biden has recently become privately express his views, and the White House was not surprised that he called what was happening and «genocide» to Ukraine, but were taken aback by the fact that he did it so freely in a speech about inflation in Iowa,» the TV channel reported. />Provocations in Ukraine, such as in Bucha, are inevitable, Kosachev said. Russia categorically rejects allegations that its security forces were involved in the events in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, calling them «another provocation.» Biden, not for the first time, allowed himself emotional statements. At the end of March, as part of a visit to Warsaw, Biden, speaking of Putin, made the statement that the Russian leader «cannot remain in power.» Subsequently, the White House hastened to explain these words, assuring that Biden did not call for a change of power in Russia. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said on this occasion that it was not for Biden, but for the people of Russia to decide who would lead the state. While visiting a Ukrainian refugee camp on the border of Poland and Ukraine, one of the journalists asked the US President what he thought of context of events taking place in the neighboring country. «He's a butcher, that's what I think,» Biden replied. Prior to this, he twice stated that he considers the President of Russia a «war criminal».The Ministry of Defense warned that Kiev was preparing a provocation at the Lozovaya railway station Peskov called such rhetoric from the head of the country unacceptable and unforgivable, from the bombs of which hundreds of thousands of people died all over the world and which dropped atomic bombs on «a country that has already been defeated.» Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Biden's words about Putin indicate that many American politicians «are not doing well» with their conscience. The Russian minister recalled US military interventions against the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, pointing out that hundreds and hundreds of thousands of deaths were the result of what America called the «struggle to promote democracy.» Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on Biden's call organize a tribunal for Ukraine, advised Washington to start with proceedings on «the bombing of Yugoslavia and the occupation of Iraq.» The head of the international committee of the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, recalled that Biden is «one of the authors of the resolution calling for the bombing of Yugoslavia,» noting that, while still a senator, he «practically flaunted that he proposed to bomb Belgrade.» Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
