‘Unforgivable’: Kremlin slams Joe Biden for calling Vladimir Putin a war criminal

US President Joe Biden‘s comment labelling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” has not gone down well in Russia, and the Kremlin has described Biden’s comment as “unacceptable and unforgivable.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov not only strongly criticised Biden’s comment, but added that the US President was in no position make such statements given America’s history of aggressive military action on foreign soil.

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“We believe such rhetoric to be unacceptable and unforgivable on the part of the head of a state, whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world,” the 54-year-old told Russian state news agency TASS.

“And most importantly, the head of state which bombed people all over the world for many years and which dropped an atomic bomb on a country [Japan] that had already been defeated — I mean Hiroshima and Nagasaki — cannot have the right to make them,” Peskov added, clarifying what he meant.

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The strongly worded statement from the Kremlin came mere hours after Biden called Putin a war criminal during a White House event on Wednesday.

Biden’s comment on Wednesday, incidentally, marked the US’ strongest condemnation of Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.

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Although Kyiv had repeatedly accused Russian of attacking civilians and committing war crimes since the invasion began, Western leaders had initially avoided using the term ‘war crime‘.

However, over the past couple of weeks, international condemnation of Russian attacks on civilian targets has grown considerably: while the US Senate recently voted unanimously to open an investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has also opened its own investigation into the issue.