WASHINGTON, April 3, 2022 (AFP) – President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview to be shown in the United States this Sunday that Russian troops are carrying out “genocide” in Ukraine.
“This is genocide. The eradication of an entire country and people,” Zelensky told CBS’s Face the Nation program, a day after the network released new evidence of atrocities committed by soldiers, according to a transcript released by the network. Russian forces in Buka, a city recaptured by Ukrainian forces.
“We are citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. It is about the destruction and destruction of all these nationalities,” Zelensky said.
On 24 February, three days after the invasion began, Ukraine filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Russia of “planning the genocide”.
The interview will air on Sunday, a day after images of civilian bodies scattered on the streets of the city of Buka, near Kyiv, were released.
Buka Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said 280 bodies were buried in mass graves in the city.
“We are citizens of Ukraine and we do not want to submit to the policy of the Russian Federation. That is why we are being destroyed and destroyed,” Zelensky said according to a CBS transcript.
“And this is happening in 21st century Europe. This is the torture of the whole country,” he said.
Images and reports of civilian deaths in Buka drew criticism from the international community and threatened further sanctions against Moscow.
fff/dw/st/yow/fp
