Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden in a tweet on Tuesday for utilizing the phrase “genocide” to explain the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“True phrases of a real chief,” Zelensky tweeted. “Calling issues by their names is crucial to face as much as evil. We’re grateful for US help supplied thus far and we urgently want extra heavy weapons to forestall additional Russian atrocities.”
Biden first used the phrase throughout a speech earlier Tuesday. In earlier remarks, he had stopped in need of calling what’s underway in Ukraine a genocide.
“Your loved ones price range, your potential to refill your tank, none of it ought to hinge on whether or not a dictator declares warfare and commits genocide a half a world away,” he mentioned at an occasion in Iowa.
Biden then reiterated his assertion later within the day, telling reporters that “it’s change into clearer and clearer that Putin is simply attempting to wipe out even the concept of being Ukrainian.”
“And the proof is mounting, it’s totally different than it was final week, the extra proof that’s popping out,” he continued. “Actually the horrible issues that the Russians have carried out in Ukraine, and we’re going to solely study increasingly in regards to the devastation — and we’ll let the attorneys determine internationally it qualifies, nevertheless it certain appears that strategy to me.”
Zelensky accused Russia of committing genocide final week after a major variety of civilian our bodies had been uncovered in Bucha following the withdrawal of Russian troops.
“Certainly. That is genocide,” Zelensky mentioned in an interview with CBS Information’ “Face the Nation” on April 3. “The elimination of the entire nation, and the individuals. We’re the residents of Ukraine. We’ve got greater than 100 nationalities. That is in regards to the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”
Different world leaders, such because the UK’s Boris Johnson and Poland’s Andrzej Duda, have additionally used the phrase “genocide” to explain Russian actions in Ukraine.
See Zelensky’s tweet:
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this publish.
