White House says Russian atrocities part of Putin’s ‘plan’ for Ukraine

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday said the atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine and other parts of the country part of a deliberate plan to inflict terror on civilians.

Earlier on Monday, President Joe Biden said revelations of Russian attacks on civilians, including execution-style killings of bound captives, justifies his earlier decision to refer to Russian president Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal”.

“The truth of the matter – we saw it happen in Bucha – this warrants him – he is a war criminal,” said Mr Biden, who added that the Russian dictator “should be held accountable”.

Speaking at Monday’s daily White House press briefing, Mr Sullivan said the brutality of Russian forces was what “Russia was intending” for Ukraine “as a matter of policy”.

“We do not believe that this is just a random accident, or the rogue act of a particular individual — we believe that this was part of the plan,” he said.

Mr Sullivan noted that he and other US officials had warned that Russia was intending on inflicting terror upon Ukraine’s civilian population, and those warnings were now looking quite prescient in light of what has been revealed in the wake of Russia’s retreat from much of the country.

“We declared it from this podium as part of the plan, and now we are seeing it play out in real life, in living color, in these terrible tragic images we are seeing come from Bucha,” he said.

A short time later, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said “we should brace ourselves” for more reports and images of further atrocities as Ukrainian forces retake territory and independent media gains further access to areas abandoned by Russian forces.

She added that at Mr Biden’s direction, the US will seek Russia’s expulsion from its’ seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.