In a televised address overnight from Thursday to Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of practicing "genocide" in the Donbass, in the east of the country, where the city of Severodonetsk suffered a deluge of bombs.
“The current offensive by the occupiers in Donbass could make the region uninhabited,” he said, accusing the invaders of seeking to “burn down” Severodonetsk and other towns in the region.
On Thursday, Russian forces also shelled Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the northeast of the country, which had returned to some semblance of normal life in recent weeks.
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According to the Ukrainian president, Russian forces practice "deportation" and "mass killings of civilians" in the Donbass, denouncing "an obvious policy of genocide carried out by Russia".
Mr. Zelensky's accusations echo those of Moscow, which justified its invasion by an alleged "genocide" carried out by the Ukrainians against the Russian-speaking population in the Donbass.
The Ukrainian Parliament had already adopted last April a resolution describing as “genocide” the actions of the Russian army.
He had also urged all foreign countries and international organizations to do the same.
Severodonetsk severely affected
While French President Emmanuel Macron refuses to use the term "genocide", his American counterpart Joe Biden had indeed accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine.
After failing to take kyiv and Kharkiv, the Russian army has refocused its efforts on the complete conquest of Donbass, an industrial basin already partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Supported by a deluge of bombs, the Russian army threatens Severodonetsk, which could suffer the same fate as Mariupol, a Ukrainian strategic port largely destroyed after weeks of siege.
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According to a senior Pentagon official, the Russian army is trying to encircle the city and the neighboring city of Lysychansk: "We believe that the Russian forces were able to take most of the northeast of Severodonetsk, even if fighting is still going on.
The head of the civil and military administration of Severodonetsk, Alexander Stryuk, meanwhile said that between 12,000 and 13,000 people are still in the city, which had 100,000 inhabitants before the war.
Stryuk also revealed that "85-90% of buildings in the city were damaged."
Kharkiv targeted again
In Kharkiv, the air alert sirens sounded again at dawn on Friday, where bombings the day before left 9 dead and 19 injured, all civilians according to Zelensky.
A five-month-old baby and his father were notably killed, while the mother was seriously injured, the Ukrainian president said.
Russia had ceased its offensive on Kharkiv in mid-May to concentrate more troops in the east and south of Ukraine, and the city has begun a difficult return to normal in recent days, notably reopening the circulation of the metro.
Wanting to consolidate its territorial gains in eastern and southern Ukraine before any negotiated solution, Russia dismissively rejected an Italian peace plan on Thursday.
This provided, under the guarantee of the UN, for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops, the entry of Ukraine into the EU but not into NATO, and a status of autonomy for the Donbass and Crimea which would remain under Ukrainian sovereignty.
