In a statement released on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to speak on negotiations “might not happen” in the wake of Zelensky accusing Putin of genocide after Zelensky paid a visit to Bucha.
Zelensky issued these statements as part of a video broadcast seen on Ukrainian television this past Tuesday.
“And in this meeting, we could find the way out of this situation, without losing our territory. I think that this is the bar we have to set for these negotiations. And then we will see. It might happen that there will be no negotiations. It might happen,” he stated.
The accusations came forth in the wake of Zelensky taking a trip out to a suburb of Kyiv known as Bucha this past Monday that saw the president weeping over the vast number of bodies and mass graves for the community.
“I’ve visited our cities in the Kyiv region, which we liberated from the occupiers: Stoyanka, Irpin, Bucha,” stated Zelensky. “Of course, now this area does not look like yesterday. The bodies of killed people, killed Ukrainians have already been taken from most streets. But in the yards, in the houses, the dead still remain.”
Zelensky also spoke about the issue of investigating the area for evidence of genocide for the case against Putin and the Russian invasion forces.
“We have just begun an investigation into all that the occupiers have done. At present, there is information about more than three hundred people killed and tortured in Bucha alone. It is likely that the list of victims will be much larger when the whole city is checked. And this is only one city. One of the many Ukrainian communities that the Russian military managed to seize,” he claimed.
The president of Ukraine also drew up a comparison between these atrocities that he witnessed and the damage caused during the Holocaust.
“In many villages of the liberated districts of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the occupiers did things that the locals had not seen even during the Nazi occupation 80 years ago. The occupiers will definitely bear responsibility for this,” he stated.
Zelensky has warned that Russia will be the one suffering if its leaders refuse to step forward and negotiate peace.
“If the Russian leadership does not begin to really seek peace, really negotiate peace, they will put their country in the worst condition in 50 years. The so-called wicked 90’s will seem prosperous and calm,” he stated at the end of his statements.
Zelensky concluded his address to the public with an announcement that he would be awarding 152 of the nation’s military staff a state award as Ukrainian heroes, of which three would go out posthumously.
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