US President Joe Biden admitted on Friday that Washington doesn’t recognize the International Criminal Court, but agreed with its claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin committed “war crimes” in Ukraine.
“Well, I think it’s justified,” Biden told the White House press corps before boarding a helicopter on Friday evening, when asked about the ICC. “But the question is, it’s not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”
Putin “clearly committed war crimes,” Biden said in response to another reporter. He also said the accusations of Chinese payments to members of his family were “not true,” and that the banking crisis in the US has calmed down.
Earlier in the day, the Hague-based ICC accused Putin of “unlawful transfer of population,” along with Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The claim appears to be based on the Kiev government’s interpretation of Russian efforts to evacuate children away from frontline areas that the Ukrainian military has targeted, often with NATO-supplied weapons.