Irpin, about twenty kilometers from Kiev, has been under fire from Russian bombardments for several days. Gateway to the capital, this small town defended by the Ukrainian army was pounded by Russian artillery on Sunday March 6. Eight of its inhabitants, including a family trying to flee the fighting by road, were killed, according to Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn.
“In Irpin, the last stage of the evacuation of civilians – mainly families and the elderly – took place under heavy Russian bombardment, at reported from his side Daphne Rousseaujournalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) present on site. We found on our way the bodies of two people who did not arrive alive at the other end of the road”.
Earlier in the day, The New York Times revealed that civilians had been targeted in this town on the outskirts of Kiev, publishing a photograph of a mother and two children lying dead on the road (without sheets covering the remains, very violent images), while Ukrainian soldiers try to save the life of the injured father.
” Today four members of a family, parents and two children, were killed in Irpin as they tried to leave the town “, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a video Sunday evening. ” We won’t forget. We won’t forgive. We will punish anyone who has committed atrocities in this war (…) You will never find peace on this earth – except in the grave “, he added.
⚡️Zelensky: “Today, a family of four, parents and two children, were killed in Irpin as they were trying to leave t… https://t.co/8abfaZ8zV8
Bombing of a market in Kharkiv
The bombardments continued to intensify on Sunday in other cities in the north (Chernihiv), south (Mykolaiv and Mariupol) and east (Kharkiv) of Ukraine, according to Oleksiy Arestovic, adviser to President Zelensky. The population was trapped Sunday in the besieged port of Mariupol, where a second attempt at humanitarian evacuation failed. In Kharkiv, heavy artillery fire notably hit residential areas and a television tower.
The special correspondent of Le Monde on the spot Faustine Vincent collected the testimony of Denys Kobzin, sociologist and resident of Kharkiv: “A Grad missile hit civilians queuing to buy food, it’s a fucking horror. I can’t believe this is happening here”
This morning in #Kharkiv, “a Grad missile hit civilians queuing to buy food”, t… https://t.co/eR9XsVjWO5
During a telephone interview with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Vladimir Putin “denied that his army was targeting civilians”, reports the Elysée. According to this source, the Russian president also affirmed that “the responsibility fell to the Ukrainians to let the population of the surrounded towns go”the French president replying that “the attacking army is the Russian army” and not have “no reason to believe that the Ukrainian armies put civilians in danger”.
Genocide charges
Ukraine will ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday for an emergency ruling requiring Russia to end its invasion, arguing that the reasons given by Moscow to justify its invasion are based on a misinterpretation of the Genocide Convention.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his “special military operation” was necessary “in order to protect those who have suffered harassment and genocide” – referring to the Russian-speaking population – in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine, for its part, maintains that the accusation of genocide is false and that it in no way legally justifies an invasion.
The case concerns the interpretation of the Genocide Convention adopted in 1948 and to which the two countries are signatories. This convention designates the ICJ as the body responsible for resolving disputes between the signatories. Although its decisions are binding and countries generally respect them, the Court has no means of enforcing them. The hearing will begin Monday morning at 10 a.m. Ukraine will present its case and Russia will respond on Tuesday.