Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russian forces have ‘completely destroyed’ Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and accused Moscow of trying to ‘increase pressure’ with ‘brutal’ and ‘senseless’ bombardments.
Speaking on Thursday night May 19, the Ukrainian leader said the Kremlin had intensified its offensive following the withdrawal of its troops from Kharkiv, east of Kyiv putting even more pressure on Donbas.
Zelensky also repeated that Russia was carrying out genocide and said those who ‘give and carry out criminal orders’ would be brought to justice ‘within the international tribunal’.
He said: ‘In Donbas, the occupiers are trying to increase pressure. There’s hell and that’s not an exaggeration.
‘Donbas is completely destroyed. All this doesn’t and cannot have any military explanation for Russia.’
‘The bombing and shelling of other cities, the air and missile strikes of the Russian army – all this is not just hostilities during the war.
‘Russian strikes at the Chernihiv region, in particular the terrible strike at Desna, debris clearance continues, many dead; constant strikes at the Odesa region at the cities of central Ukraine.’
The late-night address comes as Ukraine said this week its armed forces had destroyed Russian tanks deep behind enemy lines in the Donbas region using British-made Brimstone missiles for the first time.