State Department suggests Biden ‘genocide’ comment is his opinion and not a 'legal' determination

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Former Ukraine president urges FBI to investigate Russian 'genocide'

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The State Department said Wednesday that President Biden's comments regarding "genocide" in Ukraine at the hands of Russian forces was based "on the horrific atrocities that we've all seen" take place throughout Ukraine.

Asked whether his comments reflect the wider view of the U.S. government, State Department spokesperson Ned Price insisted there has been no legal determination on whether genocide has been committed by Russia in Ukraine.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price (KEVIN LAMARQUE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"The president has not hesitated to draw attention to the horrific acts, the atrocities that Russia's forces have been committing almost since the very first hours of Russia's invasion," Price said, reminding reporters of the department's assessment that "war crimes" have been committed by Russia.

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Noting the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine, Price said it will be the "task of international lawyers to determine whether what we're seeing meets that legal threshold of genocide."

"The president was basing his comments on the horrific atrocities that we've all seen in Mariupol, Bucha, Kharkiv, you could go on," Price added.

President Joe Biden speaks in Menlo, Iowa, on April 12, 2022. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Price also told reporters that the State Department is "engaged in a process at this very moment to work with partners around the world — but in the first instance, our Ukrainian partners — to help them collect, to preserve, to document, and to share evidence of atrocities, potential war crimes, and yes, if that legal threshold is reached, genocide."

Speaking about inflation on Tuesday, Biden said that the prices Americans pay shouldn't depend on whether a dictator "commits genocide" against another country.

"We’ll let the lawyers decide, internationally, whether or not it qualifies," Biden later clarified in his answer to reporters in Iowa, "but it sure seems that way to me."

Biden later said he used the term because "evidence is mounting."

"I called it genocide because it’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian," he said. "The evidence is mounting."

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a cabinet meeting via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Biden drew praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called the comments "true words of a true leader."

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"Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil," Zelenskyy said on Twitter. "We are grateful for US assistance provided so far, and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities."

Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this article.