April 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US President Biden's declaration that a genocide is underway in Ukraine won't change US policy and shouldn't be confusing to other world leaders, the White House insisted Wednesday.

Biden made the remark as observers gain greater access to devastated areas of Ukraine, and was speaking to "what we all see, what he feels as clear as day in terms of the atrocities happening on the ground," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

She was speaking a day after Biden made the remark in Iowa, first in passing during a speech about ethanol and later more directly on a tarmac.

Psaki said the legal process for determining whether genocide was underway would proceed. But she said Biden was voicing his views as the US president, not just a personal stance.

"He's the President and we are here to implement his views," she said.

Psaki told CNN's MJ Lee that fellow world leaders shouldn't be confused by Biden's statements, which often outpace official US designations — first on war crimes and now on genocide.

"I don't think anybody is confused about the atrocities of what we're seeing on the ground," she said.

"President Putin is brutally targeting civilians and brutalizing a country right now. So the President — this President — was speaking to what those atrocities are," she said.

She said even an official designation of genocide wouldn't necessarily change US policy.

"It doesn't change a policy," she said. "There would be an international effort to explore that and an investigation at an international level. Those often take many years."

Polish President Andrzej Duda said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is "not war," but “terrorism”, and said those who committed war crimes must be punished, after he and Baltic leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Wednesday.   

“The perpetrators of these crimes, both direct and indirect, must be punished. Prosecutors collect evidence in places where mass murders took place. It is inconceivable that such things should happen in the modern world,” he added.  

“There is no dialogue with those who break all the rules”, he said. “I hope that Ukraine will soon become part of the European Union as a free and sovereign state making decisions about itself.” 

Poland has played a key role in helping the people fleeing the war — which has sparked Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war — taking in 2.68 million Ukrainian refugees since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to figures from the Polish Border Guard on Tuesday.   

It marks a significantly warmer stance compared to its response to the last refugee crisis which began in 2015, when it subsequently resisted taking in an EU-proposed quota of migrants seeking refuge from predominantly war-torn Middle Eastern countries.   

“We are Ukraine's neighbors not only literally, but also in the sense of the common history and understanding of the situation,” Duda said on Wednesday.

A top US State Department official said Wednesday that it is likely United States will ultimately determine that genocide has been committed in Ukraine. 

In an interview with CNN Newsroom, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said US President Joe Biden “spoke from his heart when he called what we’re seeing in Ukraine genocide by the Russian Federation and its forces.”

Nuland said that the US has “a process of collecting evidence over time” in order to make a formal government determination of genocide.

Asked why sanctions haven’t had a deterrent effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nuland replied that it is because Putin “doesn't care about his people or his country, he only cares about his own imperial ambition.”

“He doesn't see that what he is doing is not only turning Ukraine into rubble, it's also turning Russia into a prison,” she said.

Russia said Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on 398 members of the US Congress in retaliation against Washington blacklisting hundreds of Russian lawmakers last month. 

Moscow’s “mirror sanctions” include “the leadership and committee chairmen of the lower house of the U.S. Congress,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. 

The US Treasury Department on March 24 announced sanctions against 328 members of the 450-seat Russian State Duma — the lower level of the two-tiered Russian Parliament. 

“Further announcements of Russian countermeasures are planned in the near future,” including adding more Americans to the sanctioned list, Moscow said in Wednesday’s statement.

The commanders of two Ukrainian units defending the besieged port city of Mariupol issued a video statement saying they had been able to join forces, as Russia claimed advances in the city.

Their statement comes as Ukrainian forces remain blockaded inside Mariupol, which has been under weeks of relentless bombardment. The Russian military has repeatedly claimed to have taken strategic positions in the city, but has also faced stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

Denys Prokopenko, the commander of the Azov Regiment, said his unit had linked up with troops from the 36th Marine Brigade, but acknowledged that some Ukrainian defenders had surrendered. 

"These are real men [of the 36th] who have chosen the path of war," he said. "Do not make heroes out of deserters and fighters who voluntarily surrendered. They chose the path of shame, and shouldn’t be heroized in any case."

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych had said earlier on Wednesday that after a "risky maneuver" the last remaining defenders of the besieged port city of Mariupol have been able to join forces.

"This is what happens when officers do not lose their heads, but firmly maintain command and control of the troops," Arestovych said.

CNN cannot independently confirm the details of the operation. 

Meanwhile, in a statement Wednesday, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Mariupol's commercial seaport had been captured. CNN was not independently able to verify that claim.

International sanctions may be starting to bite, his troops are seeing “significant” losses in Ukraine and US President Joe Biden just called his war a genocide, but for Russian President Vladimir Putin, everything is still going to plan.

In remarks this week, Putin has shown no hint of introspection, spinning Russia’s pariah status on the international stage as a sort of victory.

Take his remarks in a virtual meeting on Russia’s development of the Arctic. Western oil companies may be abandoning ventures in Russia, taking their technical expertise with them, Biden has slapped a ban on Russian oil, gas and coal imports and the EU, though far from going cold turkey, is looking to decouple from Russian energy.

Putin’s take? The pain inflicted on European energy consumers is a good thing, and Russia will find other markets.

That sort of glass-half-full message may be meant to reassure uneasy Russians. But Putin is also presenting a blithe confidence about how the war in Ukraine is going, despite massive setbacks in the effort to “denazify” Ukraine — the Kremlin leader’s ugly shorthand for overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and ending Ukrainian statehood as we know it.

Read the full analysis here.

At the request of Kyiv, France will provide Ukraine with a new round of military aid, French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly said Wednesday. 

The minister did not say what the additional military aid would include.

French President Emmanuel Macron will speak with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, according to the Élysée Palace. 

US President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart Wednesday that the US was sending an additional $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition and other security assistance.

The package will include both new types of weapons and the types of equipment the US has been providing to Ukraine for weeks.

The new equipment includes "artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers," the statement from Biden read. 

"I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters," he wrote.

The $800 million shipment brings to more than $3 billion the total amount of military assistance the US has provided to Ukraine.

"The steady supply of weapons the United States and its Allies and partners have provided to Ukraine has been critical in sustaining its fight against the Russian invasion. It has helped ensure that Putin failed in his initial war aims to conquer and control Ukraine. We cannot rest now," Biden wrote in a statement.

The US President said he assured Zelensky that the "American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom."

The Russian military in a statement Wednesday threatened to strike Ukrainian "decision-making centers" — including those in Ukraine's capital — in response to what Russia said were "attempts of sabotage and strikes" on Russian territory.

Russia, earlier this month, accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot inside Russian territory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has neither confirmed nor denied the attack.