![Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Russian Security Council meeting via videolink in Moscow on March 11. [Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP]](/cnmi_ca/images/2022/03/17/34573-russia-putin-739_416.webp)
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Ukraine's defence minister on Thursday (March 17) called on European Union lawmakers to recognise Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal" and urged the bloc to step up arms supplies to fight Moscow's forces.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.
The demand by the defence minister came after US President Joe Biden on Wednesday sparked Kremlin fury by dubbing Putin a "war criminal" for his forces' bombings of Ukrainian cities.
Russian warplanes and artillery have pounded civilian locations in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and other cities, arousing global condemnation.
![The Mariupol theatre is shown March 16 after a Russian bomb demolished it. It was sheltering more than 1,000 civilians. Ukrainian authorities had written the word 'Children' in Russian in two places outside the building. [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba/Twitter]](/cnmi_ca/images/2022/03/17/34569-mariupol-739_416.webp)
The Mariupol theatre is shown March 16 after a Russian bomb demolished it. It was sheltering more than 1,000 civilians. Ukrainian authorities had written the word 'Children' in Russian in two places outside the building. [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba/Twitter]
![Evacuees from Mariupol, Ukraine, are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people, on March 16. More than 2,100 residents have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion, according to city authorities. [Emre Caylak/AFP]](/cnmi_ca/images/2022/03/17/34572-mariupol-evacuees-739_416.webp)
Evacuees from Mariupol, Ukraine, are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people, on March 16. More than 2,100 residents have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion, according to city authorities. [Emre Caylak/AFP]
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan on February 28, only four days into the war, announced plans to investigate possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine, as reported by various outlets.
On Wednesday, a Russian plane dropped a bomb on a theatre in besieged Mariupol that had been sheltering more than 1,000 women and children.
Ukrainian authorities had written the word "Children" in Russian in two places outside the building.
"After an awful night of not knowing, we finally have good news from Mariupol... The bomb shelter [of the theatre] was able to hold. The rubble is beginning to be cleared. People are coming out alive," former Donetsk provincial governor Sergei Taruta wrote in a Facebook post Thursday, according to CNN.
It was not yet clear whether all those who sheltered in the theatre had survived.
The "heartbreaking" bombing of the theatre was an act of "cruelty and evil", Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said in an address to its Permanent Council in Vienna, according to CNBC.
'State terror' by the Kremlin
A Russian plane earlier on March 9 bombed a children's hospital in Mariupol, killing one child and two adults.
"It's not simply a war. It's state terror. The regular army of the aggressor is conscientiously annihilating the civil population," Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told EU legislators via videolink.
"I'm appealing to all European Parliamentary members to recognise that Putin is a war criminal, as has been done in the United States."
More than 400 schools, 110 hospitals and 1,000 housing blocks across Ukraine have been destroyed in the three weeks since Putin launched the invasion, he said.
More than 14,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the three-week-old war, he added.
Reznikov called on Europe to help supply more weapons.
"We will win. It's a question only of the price which the Ukrainian people will pay," he said.
"The Russians can be stopped, victory can be gained, but we need assistance."
Through their Ukrainian government proxies, the West is bombing Ukraine and killing civilians while blaming all that on Russia. Everything they blame on Russia they do themselves. Demons. All haters of Russia are happy to play along and spread their brazen lies.
Reply3 Comment(s)
We've been following the recent events, which have been simmering for a long time, with a heavy heart and sorrow. The Western foes and the USA had been egging on Russia from all sides to literally engage it in a fight with them for a long time. They represent the dark forces of the Planet, strangers and haters of the Light and New Kind Initiatives coming from Russian leaders. They have thrown an enormous amount of resources at uprooting and defiling human values, and all those kind and fair initiatives coming from the country's leaders. THEIR DEMONIC NATURE IS SUCH IT STOPS AT NOTHING FOR THE SAKE OF ITS DIRTY AND INDECENT AMBITIONS, INCLUDING VILE ATTACKS ON RUSSIA, SOWING DISCORD BETWEEN PEOPLE, AND SPONSORING THE LUNATIC OPPOSITION'S LIBEL AND SLANDEROUS ACTIVITIES. BUT THERE ARE LIMITS TO EVERYTHING. WHEN THE CUP OF ENDURANCE WITH THE ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THE SECURITY ISSUES OF OUR HOMELAND PEACEFULLY RUNS OVER, AND THE DEMONS CONTINUE THEIR MANIPULATIONS, OUR PRESIDENT COURAGEOUSLY ENGAGES IN FIGHTING USING OTHER METHODS. IT'S NOT A WAR; IT'S HUMANITARIAN AID TO MANKIND WHILE IT IS AT THE TURNING POINT TO THE NEW DIMENSION OF OUR BEING, HELPING TO GET RID OF EVIL, PRETENDING (NOW THE MASK USED BY THE WEST TO DISGUISE ITS TRUE INTENTIONS TOWARD RUSSIA IS CLEARLY VISIBLE), ENVY, HATRED, GREED AND EMPTY SLANDER. I COULD CONTINUE ON THE LIST OF THEIR DEMON NATURE HIDING THEIR TRUE FACE UNDER THE MASK OF "VIRTUES."
Reply3 Comment(s)
Their wish is to not let a fresh and clear breeze full of Love and Truth enter people's hearts. They desire to fill the Planet with the darkness and gloom of their egotistic theories. BUT THERE'S ONLY ONE TRUTH!!!! HOWEVER LONG DEMONS ARE BULLYING RUSSIA, OUR SPIRIT WILL RETALIATE THOROUGHLY FOR ALL THEIR DEEDS. A SPECIAL RETALIATION FROM HEAVEN AWAITS THOSE WHO CHOSE THEIR SIDE. EVERY BRIGHT FORCE OF THE UNIVERSE IS WITH RUSSIA NOW, WITH OUR PRESIDENT, THE ONLY ONE OUT OF BILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO STOOD UP TO PROTECT HUMAN VALUES. MAY THE HIGHEST DIVINE BEGINNING OF THE CREATOR PROTECT HIS EVERY STEP AND EVERY DECISION. THE PLANET WILL TURN INTO A PURGATORY THE DARK FORCES HAVE ASKED FOR. THIS NIGHT IS SPECIAL, THE NIGHT OF GOD THE DESTROYER OF IGNORANCE. LET THE TERMINATION OF HUMAN IGNORANCE AND HUMAN BLINDNESS BECOME THE SIGN THE PLANET AND UNIVERSE ARE STRIVING FOR. 3/12022 – 3/2/2022
Reply3 Comment(s)