Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 21: Russia on Monday summoned the US ambassador in Moscow and lodged strong protest over president Joe Bidden terming his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” over Russia’s invasion into Ukraine and said such comments had “endangered ties between the two countries.
“Such statements by the American president which is not worthy of a high –ranking statesman, has put the Russia- America relations on the verge of rupture,” a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
The statement said the ambassador John Sullivan was handed over a formal letter of protest over “recent unacceptable statements made by Joe Biden.” He was warned that “hostile actions taken against Russia would receive firm and decisive response,” the ministry said. Biden had recently called Putin a “war criminal” accusing him of deliberate civilian killings in Ukraine.
Ukraine also alleged that Russia was conducting state terrorism in Ukraine and would go on to attack other countries, Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday. Speaking alongside British defence minister Ben Wallace during a visit to London, Reznikov said at least 150 Ukrainian children had been killed since Russia invaded, with more than 400 schools and kindergartens and more than 110 hospitals destroyed. “This is a state terrorism. That is why (the) Kremlin must be stopped, because it will go further. It will attack other countries,” Reznikov said. He did not cite any evidence to support his assertion. Russia denies targeting civilians in the war zone.
Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian peace negotiators held a 90-minute video call on Monday, a Ukrainian negotiator said. David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegate, was quoted by Ukrainian media as saying: “Today we are working the whole day.”
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said: “We have supported the negotiations that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has attempted with the Russians, and I use the word attempted because the negotiations seem to be one-sided, and the Russians have not leaned in to any possibility for a negotiated and diplomatic solution.”
Ukraine also claimed that at least eight people have died after Russian forces bombed a shopping centre in Kyiv. Ukraine’s prosecutor general said, “As a consequence of the enemy missile strike and the resulting fire, a shopping mall was destroyed, windows in the nearby residential buildings and the vehicles parked in the vicinity were damaged.”
Hundreds of Ukrainians waited in front of Poland’s national stadium to register for work permits on Monday as governments and businesses across central Europe sought to help refugees who have fled Russia’s invasion find jobs and school places.
Poland has taken in the largest number of refugees, some 2.1 million, since the start of the war on Feb. 24. Its pre-war Ukrainian community of around 1.5 million had already represented the region’s largest.