Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to tell him that President Joe Biden’s comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin have pushed the two nations’ relationship to the “verge of rupture.”
Last week, Biden called the Russian president a “war criminal,” while others within his administration had not gone that far in describing the events in Ukraine. The Kremlin called the characterization “unacceptable and unforgivable.”
“Such statements from the American president, unworthy of a statesman of such high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture,” the ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters, warning that hostile actions against Russia would receive a “decisive and firm response.”
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The comments come amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began more than three weeks ago. Since then, Russian forces have had limited success in taking over major cities, including the capital. The troops have been plagued by logistical problems with fuel and supplies as well as a miscalculation of Ukrainian opposition.
Russia’s troops are targeting Kyiv, the capital, in the north while also trying to take control of key port cities in the south, though they’ve had more success with the latter, in part due to having a shorter distance to resupply and because they have already developed the infrastructure to handle it since the invasion of Crimea in 2014.
A senior U.S. defense official said Russian forces have “largely stalled across the country” on Friday and, on Monday, said that not much had changed in that assessment.
Biden’s characterization of Putin came after an apparent increase in the targeting of civilian structures or of civilians themselves. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last Thursday that what “we’ve seen most recently appear to be focused directly on civilians.”
Putin has claimed that the objective of the military operation is to “de-Nazify” the Ukrainian government, despite critics pointing out that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.
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The United States and NATO have provided military assistance to the Ukrainian forces but have thus far refused to commit troops to fight against Russian forces in Ukraine. The U.S. alone has donated more than $1 billion worth of weapons.
Biden has repeatedly said U.S. troops will not fight against Russians in Ukraine unless NATO’s Article 5 is invoked by a fellow member country. If that were to happen, each NATO ally would be obligated to respond as if it was individually being attacked.
