Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying out a genocide in its war on his country Sunday.
“This is terror. They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly. This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed,” Zelenskyy said in a video message.
“Russia’s criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had accused the Ukrainian of genocide in his justification for launching an invasion of Ukraine last week,
“The main clashes of the Russian military as expected are taking place not with the regular Ukrainian units but with the nationalistic formations who are directly responsible for the genocide of Donbas and the blood of its people,” Putin said on Friday.
Zelenskyy called on the UN to strip Russia of its voting rights at the Security Council, where Russia has an automatic veto power.