NZ will deploy a C-130 Hercules aircraft with 50 Defence Force personnel to Europe, to help transport and distribute donated military aid to Ukraine. Video / NZ Herald
President Joe Biden for the first time referred to Russia's invasion in Ukraine as a "genocide" Tuesday (US time).
Speaking in Iowa at an event about steps his administration is taking to staunch rising fuel costs because of the war, Biden termed the conflict, which has seen Russia carry out atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, as a "genocide."
Said Biden: "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 has previously stated that he did not believe Russia's actions amounted to genocide, as Ukrainian government officials have argued, but rather were "war crimes."
Members of the US Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if chemical weapons were used in the Russian war with Ukraine.
Volunteers load bodies of civilians killed in Bucha onto a truck to be taken to a morgue for investigation, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo / AP
Lawmakers monitoring developments during a trip to Poland said Tuesday that the US is investigating reports that a poisonous substance had been dropped in Mariupol. But they cautioned that determining the nature of the attack in the beleaguered port city could take time.
"We're taking those reports seriously and I know the United States government and others are trying to determine if that did indeed occur," said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.
Crow said the administration "has been very clear that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated."
The Democratic lawmakers, all members of the House Intelligence Committee, are bracing for a potential long war in Ukraine. They said at a press briefing that Congress is looking at next steps in sending additional military and other aid to Ukraine.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the reports coming from Mariupol.
"We're not in a position to confirm anything, I don't think Ukrainians are either," Blinken told reporters. "But let me say that we had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, that would cause stronger symptoms to weaken, incapacitate ... Ukrainian fighters and civilians, as part of the aggressive campaign" in Mariupol.
"We share that information with ... Ukraine and other partners," Blinken said. "And we're in direct conversation with partners to try to determine what actually is happening."
Anatoliy Morykin, 45, left, mourns the death of his mother Valentyna Morykina, 82, who died in a retirement home due to poor living conditions during the Russian invasion in Bucha. Photo / AP
Pro Russian opposition party and Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk detained
Ukrainian officials say fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who is both the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has been detained in a special operation carried out by the country's SBU secret service.
Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine's national security agency, said on the agency's Telegram channel that Medvedchuk had been detained. The statement came shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch.
Medvedchuk was the former leader of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life. He was being held under house arrest before the war began and disappeared shortly after hostilities broke out.
Putin is the godfather to Medvedchuk's youngest daughter.
