France Germany refuse to say Russia carried out genocide

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to call killings in Ukraine “genocide” and his reference to Russians as a “brotherly” people.

“Such things are very painful for us, so I will definitely do my best to discuss this issue with him,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference n Wednesday with the visiting presidents of Poland and the Baltic states, according to Guardian newspaper website.

Macron said leaders should be “careful” with the terminology on genocide in these situations, especially as “the Ukrainians and Russians are brotherly peoples”.

“I would say that Russia unilaterally unleashed the most brutal war, that it is now established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and make them face justice,” Macron said.

“It’s madness what’s happening, it’s incredibly brutal,” he added.

“But at the same time I look at the facts and I want to try as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace. I’m not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause,” he said.

This comes as Russia announced on Wednesday night that more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in Mariupol and the city was under full control of Russian troops and its backed-forces.

KI