During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba told host Margaret Brennan that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine “has no right to exist as a country.”
“The president of Poland said that what happened in the past week, specifically the bombing of that maternity hospital that got so much attention around the world, that it bears the features of genocide,” Brenna asked Kuleba. “Is that what you believe Russia’s intent is?”
“Putin definitely believes that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country,” Kuleba responded. “He doesn’t recognize our identity. He says we are Russians, we are not Ukrainians. We are the same, which is obviously not the case.”
“And from what we’ve been seeing in recent three weeks is a series of deliberately-committed war crimes, crimes against humanity,” Kuleba added. “And when they bomb hospitals, maternity houses, schools, when they kill civilians passing by trying to be evacuated from the war zone, that, of course, indicates that they are trying to break us down and to destroy us.”
Last week, a Russian airstrike destroyed a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine. The attack killed at least three individuals, including one child, and injured 17.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack an “atrocity.”
“Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity. pic.twitter.com/FoaNdbKH5k
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 9, 2022
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently preparing to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible” into potential war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia before and during its invasion of Ukraine, according to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
Citing previous investigations from the ICC into alleged crimes committed by Russia before their invasion of Ukraine, Khan said “there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine in relation to the events already assessed during the preliminary examination by the Office.” He added that “given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine.”
