Biden, Western Leaders, Slam Putin For Unprovoked Aggression In Ukraine

Western countries and Ukraine have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.

Photo Insert: President Joe Biden meets virtually with world leaders in the Situation Room of the White House.

The White House said US President Joe Biden, who has called Russia's actions "genocide," would hold a call with allies on Tuesday (Wednesday, April 20, 2022, in Manila) to discuss the crisis, including how to hold Russia accountable, Reuters reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his dialogue with Putin had stalled after mass killings were discovered in Ukraine. Russia denies targeting civilians but it has bombed cities to rubble, and hundreds of civilian bodies have been found in towns where its forces withdrew.

It says, without evidence, that those and other signs of atrocities were staged, the Associated Press (AP) also reported. Meanwhile, weapons are pouring into Ukraine to beat Russian aggression.

Russia has been trying to take full control of the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged since the war's early days, the site of the war's heaviest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe. Tens of thousands of residents have been trapped with no access to food or water and bodies littering the streets.

Ukraine believes more than 20,000 civilians have died there. Capturing it would link pro-Russian separatist territory with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade which is still fighting in Mariupol, appealed for help in a letter to Pope Francis.

"This is what hell looks like on earth ... It's time (for) help not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands," he said in the letter, according to excerpts that Ukraine's Vatican ambassador posted on Twitter. Largely Orthodox Ukraine celebrates Easter on April 24.

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