French President Emmanuel Macron declined to describe Russian actions in Ukraine as a “genocide” a day after President Joe Biden used the term for the first time.
Macron said he “would be careful” using such language “because these two peoples [Russians and Ukrainians] are brothers” during a Wednesday interview with public broadcaster France 2.
“I want to continue to try, as much as I can, to stop this war and rebuild peace. I am not sure that an escalation of rhetoric serves that cause,” he added. “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.”
UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL INVESTIGATING ROUGHLY 5,800 ALLEGED WAR CRIMES
A day earlier, Biden alluded that he viewed the situation in Ukraine as a genocide during a biofuel event in Menlo, Iowa, where he said: “Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank — none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away.”
Biden, later that day, reaffirmed the comment, saying, “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian” and that “the evidence is mounting. It looks different than last week. More evidence is coming out literally of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine.”
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said it had begun investigating roughly 5,800 allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian forces.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe released a report Wednesday investigating alleged violations of humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The investigation began on March 14, and it submitted the report on April 5.
Russian forces shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol, bombed a theater in the same city that was serving as a shelter, even though locals had spelled out the word “children” in Russian in the front and back of the facility to prevent such an attack, and also bombed a school that was housing hundreds of people.
The OSCE investigators concluded “the attack must have been deliberate” based on satellite imagery (despite Russian statements after the attack alleging it was staged and then switching its explanation) and thus “constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law and those responsible for it have committed a war crime.”
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Investigators came to the same conclusion about the attack on the theater where up to 1,300 people were supposedly seeking shelter, the report read.
Investigators submitted their findings before the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, were uncovered, they acknowledged. A mass grave filled with hundreds of bodies was discovered there, while other civilians were found shot and killed with their wrists bound behind them. Russia has denied that its forces were responsible for these killings.
