Zelenskyy accuses Putin of 'genocide' in Ukraine, says Russia wants the 'elimination of the whole nation and the people'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, late Saturday, April 2, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is committing "genocide" in Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy called Russian soldiers "murderers, looters, butchers."
• He made the comments to Margaret Brennan on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russia is seeking the "elimination" of Ukrainians. 

"Indeed, this is genocide," Zelenskyy said. "The elimination of the whole nation and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine we have over 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities."

The Ukrainian president made the comments to Margaret Brennan during an interview on "Face the Nation" on CBS News.

"We are the citizens of Ukraine, and we don't want to be subdued to the policies of the Russian Federation, and this is the reason we are being destroyed and eliminated," Zelenskyy said. "This is happening in the Europe of the 21st century, so this is the torture of the whole nation." 

—Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 3, 2022

 

In Bucha, just outside the capital of Kyiv, nearly 300 people have been buried in mass graves. The town's mayor said the streets were "littered with corpses."

Zelenskyy posted a series of photos of Ukrainian deaths in Bucha on Telegram Sunday morning. 

"Mothers of Russian soldiers should see that. See what bastards you've raised. Murderers, looters, butchers," he said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs that he would slow his invasion of the country, even as reports of low morale among Russian soldiers emerge and the Ukrainian military continues to resist the incursion.

A top Russia expert last week warned that Putin will not abandon his goal of dominating Ukraine as long as he remains in power, Insider previously reported. 

"So as long as Putin's in the Kremlin, he's not going to give up on Ukraine," Angela Stent, who served in the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department from 1999 to 2001 and as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council from 2004 to 2006, told Insider.

"He is not going to give up on his goal of subordinating Ukraine" and "having a government there that's pro-Russian," Stent said.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said that in the besieged city of Mariupol, the city is dealing with a "humanitarian disaster" brought on by blocked humanitarian corridors and failed ceasefires. 

"There have been lots of people and all the corridors have been blocked, including humanitarian corridors, the supply of food and water," Zelenskyy said. "The evacuation happens only when the Russian side agrees to a Ukrainian proposal to open a corridor. So the corridor for the food or water simply do not exist in those cities that are occupied by Russia."

He added that in Mariupol, there are "lots of dead bodies in the street. Lots of wounded people among the military and civilians." 

As for evacuations, some people have had to whether the deadly conditions and go on foot, Zelenskyy said. 

"Some of them are walking by foot, dozens of kilometers to reach the place where we are," he said. "Many of them have died on their way. Some of them had to be picked up by other people and taken out from these blocked cities... So many people were shot at and killed."

He added that the war must end "if we don't want hundreds of thousands, millions to die."

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