Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday accused Russian forces of targeting civilians, including children, and called for an international investigation into the conflict.
“What are they doing in it? KharkivAnd Okhtyrka, Kyiv, Odessa and other cities and towns deserve an international court. We document their crimes. Zelensky said in Title of the video posted on his Facebook page.
“We have to call it a spade. Russia’s criminal actions against Ukraine are showing signs of genocide. I talked about this with the UN Secretary-General,” he said, arguing that Russia should be stripped of its voting rights in the UN Security Council.
“There is not a single facility in Ukraine that Russian forces would consider an unacceptable target,” Zelensky said.
In the capital, Kiev, residents woke up Sunday to find the city was still under Ukrainian control, although two massive explosions about 30 kilometers, or about 18 miles, south of the city lit up the sky all night.
Fighting broke out in the streets of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, after Russian forces entered the city
The Russian Ministry of Defense has previously said It targeted only military infrastructure, saying in a statement: “The Russian armed forces do not bomb cities and towns, but take all measures to save civilian lives.”
But Zelensky said on Sunday: “They lied when they said they would not target the civilian population. From the first hours of the invasion, Russian forces bombed civilian infrastructure.”
“This is terrorism,” he added, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyal said Russia was committing “war crimes”.
“They fight against everything and everyone,” said Zelensky. “They are. [hitting] Kindergartens, apartment buildings and even emergency vehicles. They used artillery and rockets against entire population blocks where there was no military infrastructure. Many Ukrainian cities and towns live in conditions that we had only seen during the Second World War.”
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