By Shannon Pettypiece -
NBC News
President Joe Biden lamented that rising gasoline prices are being driven by a "dictator" who "has committed genocide on the other side of the world" in a speech Tuesday that was an apparent reference to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking from Iowa, Biden blamed Putin for the recent increase in gas prices: "Your family budget, your ability to fill the tank, none of that should depend on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide on the other side of the world," he said.
[Inflation soars to 8.5% in March, the highest in 40 years, due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and the rise in rents]
The president
abstained on April 5 from classifying the atrocities committed by Russia in Bucha as genocide
, when journalists asked him if what happened conformed to that definition.
Biden during his arrival at the Des Moines airport in Iowa. MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan assured then that the attacks documented so far in Ukraine still did not meet the definition of genocide according to the US.
The State Department has a lengthy internal process to determine whether mass killings amount to genocide, including collecting evidence over a period of time.
One of the victims of the massacre in Bucha is identified by his nail polish
April 9, 202200:22
The United States defines genocide as "an act against members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group for the purpose of destruction, in whole or in part."
[Bucha: A ghost town after the massacre of more than 400 people, some with signs of torture]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the Bucha killings a genocide.