Mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities by Russia constitute war crimes under international law, the presidents of the Bucharest Nine group of countries, accompanied by the presidents of North Macedonia and Montenegro, said on Tuesday.
"We, the Presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia condemn the mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities recently carried out by Russia, which constitute war crimes under international law," they said in a statement.
"We recall that war crimes and crimes against humanity are not subject to any statute of limitations and are covered by jurisdiction of courts all over the world," the presidents added.
"On behalf of our states we demand that Russia immediately stop attacking civilian targets. We will not cease our efforts to bring to court persons responsible for today's crimes," they assured.
"We find any threats by Russian representatives to use nuclear weapons unacceptable. In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to protect our countries and allies," we read in the statement.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. It has denied deliberately attacking civilians.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, president.pl