Kyiv says Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine are genocide
Vienna, June 14 (EFE).- The speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, urged Austrian lawmakers to recognize Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine as “genocide” during a Tuesday intervention at the National Council in Vienna.
“I ask that it be recognized that a genocide is taking place against the population of eastern Ukraine,” Stefanchuk said in an address to the Austrian Parliament.
The politician accused Russia of committing war crimes every day and added that these actions only serve to reinforce the determination of Ukrainians to fight back because “we cannot return to normality with Russia.”
“Every day we pay a horrendous price, every day we lose 100 soldiers, and 500 are injured,” he claimed, adding that the tally did not include civilians who had been injured or killed.
“In this war, justice is as important as victory,” Stefanchuk continued.
The Chairman of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada warned that Russia was not only attacking his country but also partly attacking the rest of the European Union, albeit with no firearms.
“We are defending the border of civilized Europe,” he said.
The politician described the Kremlin’s war as a hybrid assault with various phases:
“The first is to open the tentacles of propaganda information”, followed by the clash of “economic interests” creating dependencies in the field of energy, and finally, armed aggression, Stefanchuk added.
“Ukraine is in the third phase, but Europe is already in the second phase, and nobody knows when the third will start,” he warned.
Stefanchuk said his fellow citizens were not willing to give up ground and added he was confident that Ukraine would succeed because “democracy cannot defend itself by surrendering,” but rather it will only be able to consolidate itself with a firm defense.
“I think we will win this war, we have to be determined and courageous,” the parliamentary leader continued.
In a bid to swing support in favor of Ukraine’s negotiations to enter the EU, after the right-wing populist Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) tried to block the Ukrainian leader’s address at the National Council, he rang home that “Ukraine is part of Europe.” EFE
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