Zelensky accuses Russia of genocide in Donbas

The Ukrainian President says Vladimir Putin’s bombardment of eastern cities could leave the entire region ‘uninhabited’.

A self-propelled howitzer 2S1 Gvozdika fires a leaflet shell full of Russian propaganda at Severodonetsk. Picture: Reuters

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of carrying out a genocide in the eastern region of Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is suffering an onslaught of Russian shelling.

In his daily televised address on Thursday, Mr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s brutal assault on the Donbas – where it has redirected its forces after having failed to capture Kyiv – adding that its bombardment could leave the entire region “uninhabited”.

“All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia,” he said.

Pro-Moscow separatist groups have since 2014 controlled parts of Donbas, but Russia appears set on taking the whole region.

Invading forces are closing in on several cities, including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraine’s eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk.

Kyiv’s Deputy Defence Minister, Ganna Malyar, said that fighting in the east has reached “its maximum intensity” since Russia invaded on February 24.

“The situation remains difficult, because the Russian army has thrown all its forces at taking the Luhansk region,” regional governor Serhiy Gaiday said in a video on Telegram. “Extremely fierce fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. They are simply destroying the city, they are shelling it every day, shelling without pause.”

In Kramatorsk, children roamed the rubble left by Russian attacks as the sound of artillery fire boomed. To the northwest, in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, shelling killed another nine people and wounded 19, officials said.

In the south, hints at what awaits those cities should they fall to Russian forces were emerging in Mariupol, taken over by invading forces this month after a siege that left thousands dead and reduced the city to rubble. Occupying authorities cancelled school holidays to prepare students to switch to a Russian curriculum, said a Ukrainian official.

“Throughout the summer, children will have to study Russian language, literature and history as well as math classes in Russian,” Petro Andryushchenko wrote on social media. The aim in the bombarded city, he said, was “to remove Ukraine from the curriculum and prepare them for going back to school with a Russian curriculum”.

The Kremlin is seeking to tighten its grip over the parts of Ukraine it occupies, including fast-tracking citizenship for residents of two southern regions that are mostly under Russian control. The US has branded the plan an “attempt to subjugate the people of Ukraine”.

The intensified fighting across the country prompted Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to air Kyiv’s increasing frustration with the West, accusing allies of dragging their feet on arms deliveries and telling his German counterpart that Ukraine needs heavy weapons “as soon as possible”.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday became the latest Western official to visit Kyiv, where she said it would take Russia decades to repair its standing in the world after invading Ukraine. “Trust is lost for generations,” Ms Marin said.

Sanna Marin and Volodymyr Zelensky before their talks in Kyiv. Picture: AFP

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russian President Vladimir Putin would not negotiate seriously until he realised he might not win in Ukraine. “Our goal is crystal-clear – Putin must not win this war. And I am convinced that he will not win it,” he told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Kremlin on Thursday pointed the finger at Western countries for stopping grain-carrying vessels from leaving ports in Ukraine, rejecting accusations that Russia was to blame.

Mr Putin said in a telephone call with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Moscow was ready to make a “significant contribution” to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on his country over Ukraine.

But the US scoffed at the offer.

“Now they’re using economic tools as weapons. They’re weaponising food. They’re weaponising economic assistance,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by that, since they’ve weaponised everything else, including lies and information.”

AFP