EU official wants Ukraine to prove ‘not staged massacre’

“There’s a terrible situation with a leading European Union (EU) politician. I don’t want to talk about that. He basically said ‘show us proof all this is not going to be done.’ staged, that the Ukrainian people are really dead'”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview Bild, Germany’s leading newspaper, April 8.

He declined to name the politician or when the conversation took place.

Controversy over civilian casualties in Ukraine is running high after Kiev and Western countries accused Russian forces of “killing hundreds of civilians in Bucha,” a town northwest of the capital Kiev, last month.

The Kremlin denied, asserting that the images and videos of “the bodies scattered on the streets of Bucha” were “products of Kiev and the Western media”. Russia accused Ukraine of staging information to “discredit Russia”, disrupt the peace negotiation process as well as to legitimize the imposition of tougher sanctions against Moscow.

The Ukrainian president said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “did not fully understand all that was happening”.

“I’m sure he didn’t know the situation. He gave orders but he didn’t know how many people died every day and what was happening in reality,” Zelensky said. “He doesn’t know, he doesn’t want to know, he just needs a result.”

With the controversy over Bucha, the United Nations General Assembly on April 7 voted to suspend Russia from participating in the Human Rights Council. Russia later announced its withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, accusing the West of taking advantage of the body.

China on April 8 criticized the decision to exclude Russia from the Human Rights Council as a “politicization” action that would set a “dangerous new precedent”. Earlier, China’s Foreign Ministry also urged to avoid baseless accusations about Bucha.

President Zelensky on April 8 continued accused Russian forces launched two Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles at the Kramatorsk station, killing at least 52 people and injuring about 300. The raid occurred as hundreds of civilians gathered at the station waiting to be evacuated.

Russia denies the accusations, insists Ukrainian army launches Tochka-U . missile into Kramatorsk station and called it “an inhuman act”. Moscow also accused Kiev of “trying to push the blame on the Russian side to discredit the special military operation”.

Mr. Zelensky said that there is still a lot of devastation that has yet to be discovered. “Some towns have been completely destroyed. Some towns simply don’t exist anymore, there are no houses, no people. I don’t know what we’ll find there,” he said. .

Russia launched a special military operation on February 24 to “denuclearize and de-fascist Ukraine”. It has repeatedly emphasized that it only attacks military targets, not civilians.

In a diplomatic effort to end hostilities, a Turkish official said Russia and Ukraine are ready to hold talks in the country, but “they are far from reaching an agreement”.

Issues being discussed by the two sides include the status of the Donbass region and the Crimean peninsula, as well as ensuring security for Ukraine. The official also warned that “imposed sanctions are not a good way” to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 1,766 civilian deaths and 2,383 civilian injuries in the Ukraine conflict. The agency warned the actual number could be much higher.

Huyen Le (According to Business Insider)