Biden Accuses ‘Dictator’ Putin of Committing ‘Genocide’ For First Time While Addressing Inflation

President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing “genocide” in Ukraine for the first time during remarks in Iowa on Tuesday.

Biden was speaking about record inflation and gas prices when he blamed Putin for financially burdening American families.

While attributing the country’s economic issues on Putin and his war in Ukraine, the president uttered a word he previously had refrained from using.

“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away,” Biden said from Menlo, Iowa.

Biden continued by reminding those watching he had ordered the release of oil from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve. As members of his administration have done in recent weeks, Biden labeled soaring prices “Putin’s price hike.”

The White House has yet to issue a statement expounding on Biden’s referral to Putin as being responsible for genocide.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly accused Russia of committing genocide against his country’s civilians.

After images of dead civilians in Bucha near Kyiv went viral, Zelensky told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation Russia was massacring civilians.

“Indeed, this is genocide,” Zelensky said. “We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”

Last month, Biden referred to Biden as a “war criminal” for the first time. While speaking with reporters at the White House, Biden was asked if he would designate Putin as such.

“I think he is a war criminal,” he said succinctly.

Some Ukrainian officials have estimated tens of thousands of civilians have died since Russia first invaded the country on Feb. 24.

On Monday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said he believed 10,000 people in his port city were dead.

“Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he told the Associated Press.