President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Wednesday.
Biden said to reporters at the White House that he was a war criminal after announcing the $800 million military aid package.
The accusation is the first time Biden has classified Putin as such.
While announcing the new aid package, he said that they would continue to have their backs as they fight for freedom, democracy and survival.
The Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported that a spokesman for Putin responded to Biden's comments by calling them unacceptable and unforgivable.
Biden had avoided lobbying the accusation against Putin because of the ongoing investigation.
Mark Kelly of Arizona told CNN that Putin is a war criminal and urged Biden to call him such.
CSPAN captured footage of the impromptu encounter in which Biden initially responded "no" to the reporter's question of whether or not the president was ready to call Putin a war criminal.
Biden asked the journalist to repeat her question after he made the comments.
—CSPAN (@cspan) March 16, 2022
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told CNN that the president was speaking from the heart after Biden's comments.
Biden refrained from calling the Russian president a war criminal for a second time, but he did mention Putin's atrocities on Wednesday.
Putin is bombing apartment buildings and maternity wards in Ukraine.
—President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022
It is an outrage to the world that these are atrocities.
The International Court of Justice ordered Russia on Wednesday to stop attacking Ukraine as it investigates claims of genocide.
Russian attacks on civilians have led Ukrainian officials and leaders to accuse them of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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