Zelenskyy: Shelling of maternity hospital in Mariupol is the final proof of genocide
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers Russia's shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol to be the final proof that Russia is committing genocide against Ukrainians.
Source: The Ukrainian President's address
Quote: "The dropping of an air bomb on the maternity hospital is final proof, proof that the genocide of Ukrainians is taking place.
"Europeans! You can't say that you didn't see what happened to Ukrainians, what happened to Mariupol residents. You saw, you know. So, you must tighten sanctions against Russia so that it no longer has any chance of continuing this genocide. You have to put pressure on Russia to sit down at the negotiating table and end this brutal war".
Details: According to Zelenskyy, what Russian forces are doing to Mariupol is beyond an atrocity.
"Children's hospital, maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation? What kind of country is the Russian Federation that it is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals and destroys them? Were there little Banderites? Were the pregnant women going to shoot Rostov? Did someone at the maternity hospital humiliate Russian-speaking people? What was it? The denazification of the hospital?" the president asked rhetorically.
According to him, Europeans and Ukrainians should be united in condemning this war crime by Russia, "which reflects all the evil that the aggressor brought to our land".
Zelenskyy reminded Russia that Mariupol is also in the Donetsk region, whose inhabitants Russia has talked so much about and that, in his words, everyone now sees how the people of the Donetsk region are really treated by Russia.
"We have not done and would never have done anything like this war crime with any of the cities of Donetsk or Luhansk, or from any region, with any of the cities on earth. Because we are people. And you?" asked the president.
Background:
- At around 4:30 pm on 9 March, the Russian aggressors dropped several powerful bombs on a children's hospital and a maternity hospital in Mariupol. All buildings of the medical institution were completely destroyed. At least 17 people were injured, including pregnant women.
- Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko called it "genocide" by Russian forces and hopes that the war criminals involved in the airstrike on the maternity hospital will be punished severely in international courts.
