Ukrainian President Volodymyr ZelenskyFrance Press agency

Posted 04/03/2022 13:50 | Updated on 03/04/2022 13:52

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that will be shown on Sunday in the United States that Russian forces are committing “genocide” in Ukraine. “This is genocide. The annihilation of the entire nation and the people,” Zelensky told CBS’s Face the Nation, according to a transcript released by the network the day after new evidence of the atrocities committed by the troops was released. Russian forces in Bucha, a city retaken by Ukrainian forces.

“We are citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. It is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities,” Zelensky said. Three days after the invasion began on February 24, Ukraine filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Russia of “plotting acts of genocide”.

The interview will be broadcast on Sunday, a day after photos of civilian bodies scattered in the streets of the town of Bucha near Kyiv were published. Posha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said 280 bodies were buried in mass graves in the city. “We are citizens of Ukraine and do not want to submit to the policy of the Russian Federation. That is the reason for our destruction and extermination,” Zelensky said, according to a CBS transcript.

“This is happening in 21st century Europe. This is torture for an entire nation,” he added. Pictures and reports of civilian deaths in Bucha sparked criticism from the international community and threats of further sanctions against Moscow.