US President Joe Biden has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to 'trying to extinguish a culture as Kremlin heads into the third month of its invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the Quad Summit in Tokyo on Monday, Biden said that the world is at a 'transformative moment' and the Russia-Ukraine war is not only a European but global issue. He added that the Indo-Pacific powers will lead a global response amid the conflict.
Biden also said that it seems the Russian President is no longer concerned with 'military targets' in Ukraine as his forces are 'not even aiming at military targets anymore' in Ukraine.
"Putin is just trying to extinguish a culture. This is more than just a European issue, it's a global issue. Global food crisis may worsen by Russia blocking Ukraine from exporting its grains. As long as Russia continues the war, US will work with its partners," he said.
“He’s taking out every school, every church, every natural history museum – as if to try to obliterate the Ukrainian culture,” Biden said, adding that Russia's war on Ukraine has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe and innocent civilians have been killed in the streets.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian army since February 24 has launched 1,474 missile strikes on Ukraine, using 2,275 different missiles. The vast majority hit civilian targets and there have been more than 3,000 Russian airstrikes over that period.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky while speaking at the opening session of the World Economic Forum annual meeting said that Russia is waging 'total war' on his country and that includes inflicting as many casualties and as much infrastructure destruction as possible. He also called for maximum sanctions against Russia, including an oil embargo and complete withdrawal of foreign companies.
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