Macron refuses to call Putin's actions genocide; asserts "Russia-Ukraine are brothers"

Amidst the continuing war and ruthless military aggression by the Russian forces in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday, refused to term Kremlin's actions a 'genocide'. In a televised interview with public broadcaster France 2, the French leader stated that, unlike US President Joe Biden, he did not want to use the term "genocide" for the killing of Ukrainians by the Russian military. Macron noted that he wanted to refrain from using the term "genocide" as Russians and Ukrainians are brothers. "I would be cautious with such words because these two peoples (Russians and Ukrainians) are brothers," Macron was heard saying in the interview.

French President further asserted that he did not want to indulge in the wordplay and added that he rather wanted to stop the war at the earliest. "What we can say for sure is that the situation is unacceptable and that these are war crimes. We are living through war crimes that are unprecedented on our soil — our European soil," Macron told France 2. Notably, his statements came hours after POTUS Biden proclaimed that Russia’s war in Ukraine amounted to “genocide,” and accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.” “Yes, I called it genocide,” Biden told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday shortly before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. "It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian," he added. 

Meanwhile, the embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had encouraged Western leaders to use the term "genocide" to describe Russia’s invasion, took to Twitter to praise POTUS Biden for his remarks. "True words of a true leader @POTUS,” he tweeted. “Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities," he wrote. According to the definition suggested by United Nations, it defines genocide as an action taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Ukraine Claims Bodies Of 1,222 civilians found near Kyiv

As Russia's offensive against Ukraine continues even after 49 days of the war, Moscow seems setting a "new landmark" for its atrocities against civilians. On Sunday, the local authorities of Ukraine's national capital, Kyiv, claimed to discover more than 1,200 bodies till now, marking the highest number of casualties found in an area since the war began on February 24, this year. The same has also been confirmed by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova. She told the British broadcaster Sky News that the bodies of at least 1,222 civilians had been found in the region around Kyiv alone so far. During the conversation with the broadcast, she said there are 5,600 cases of alleged war crimes that were already registered in the country. According to Venediktova, the war-torn country has identified at least 500 suspects related to the aggression in the country, including senior Russian military figures politicians and President Vladimir Putin.