“Acknowledge Putin is a war criminal” – Ukrainian minister’s appeal to MEPs

An appeal to the European Parliament to recognize the Russian president Vladimir Putin as a war criminal after Russian invasion of Ukraine, addressed today the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov. “I urge all members of the European Parliament to acknowledge that Putin is a war criminal,” he said in a video link.

He cited examples such as what he called a Russian air strike on a theater yesterday, Wednesday, where 1,200 women and children had taken refuge, he said.

The Ukrainian Defense Minister also said that Russia uses Belarus as a logistics hub for the war it has launched against Ukraine and reiterated the call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect the country, as reported by Reuters and Athens. .

US President Joe Biden has called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal., comments that the Kremlin described as “unforgivable.” Russia denies targeting civilians, and the Defense Ministry in Moscow said yesterday that it had not attacked the theater.

The EU has not yet reached as far as Biden. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on March 10 that the bombing of a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine could be a war crime.

“Ukrainian president says 1991 borders must continue to be recognized”

The Ukrainian president has not changed his position that the international borders that existed when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 must continue to be recognized, an adviser to the presidency said in the meantime.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 but the region is still considered part of Ukraine by the United Nations. Russia has also recognized the declaration of independence of two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. These two regions and Crimea were part of Ukraine when the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleksny has repeatedly said since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 that it will not compromise on its “territorial integrity”.

“His basic position has not changed,” Zelensky’s adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, told state television. “We will never abandon our national interests.”

Source: News Beast

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