Ukrainian parliament says it adopted a declaration deeming actions by Moscow a ‘genocide’

thehill.com: The Ukrainian parliament announced on Thursday that it adopted a declaration that recognized actions committed by Russia’s military as “acts of genocide.”

Among the acts recognized as genocide by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, are: “mass atrocities in the temporary occupied terrorities,” “systematic instances of willful killing of civilians,” “forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the russian terrority,” “impositions of life conditions causing grave suffering” and “widespread instances of physical and mental harm to the population of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Parliamentary chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk alleged in a statement provided through the Verkhovna Rada’s Telegram channel that Russia’s actions were intended as “systematic and consistent destruction of the Ukrainian people” and were not just crimes of aggression.

The Verkhovna Rada said that recognition of those acts as ones of genocide against Ukraine was needed immediately.

“This is the first step towards exposing Russia’s true intentions, its actions to destroy the Ukrainian people during Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and bringing this information to the international community’s attention to initiate bringing all perpetrators to justice,” Stefanchuk said.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of committing genocide during its ongoing invasion in his country.

Both former President Trump and President Biden echoed that sentiment this week, also calling the Russian invasion a “genocide.”

Russia has referred to the conflict as a “special military operation.” Both sides have suffered thousands of casualties, and more than 4.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country as refugees since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the assault in late February.