News that the US is now supplying 20 million rounds of ammunition to the Ukrainians, who will use them to wound or kill Russian soldiers, is unlikely to be greeted with enthusiasm in the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s reaction will now decide whether a dramatic escalation will follow in this war.
The fact that the United States is clearly taking sides with the arms delivery could also convince Putin: ceasefire negotiations must take place, the war in Ukraine can no longer be won in its current dimensions.
In any case, the fact that President Biden Putin found very clear and harsh words for the Kremlin chief after the announcement that he wanted to supply new weapons to Ukraine should not be conducive to de-escalation and negotiations: in view of the war of aggression against Ukraine, he referred to him publicly for the first time as “war criminal“. “I think he’s a war criminal‘ Biden said in response to a question from a reporter in Washington on Wednesday.
Moscow responded immediately: Biden’s remarks were “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric,” the TASS news agency quoted Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. The US government had always emphasized that it was possible war crimes documenting the Russian side in Ukraine. But she had always avoided it, directly from Russian ones war crimes to speak and referred to legal issues. When asked why Biden had now changed his choice of words, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “He spoke from his heart and based on what he saw on television – which is the barbaric actions of a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country.”
