Switzerland condemns Russian airstrike on Ukrainian market
The Swiss government has condemned the Russian airstrike on a market in the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka, which reportedly killed at least 16 people.
“Attacks against civilians are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the Swiss foreign ministry said Wednesday evening.
Switzerland condemns “in the strongest terms the brutal attack that resulted in numerous dead and injured in the eastern Ukrainian city”, it said on the online service X, formerly Twitter. It said Switzerland was “once again calling on Russia to immediately cease its military aggression against Ukraine”.
+ How has the war in Ukraine changed Switzerland?
Russian President Vladimir Putin had given the order for a military incursion into Ukraine on February 24 last year. Russian troops, meanwhile, hold about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory and have abducted thousands of Ukrainians, including many children.
Putin denies Ukraine the right to statehood and claims that a Nazi regime under President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, rules in Kyiv. This is also being drilled into the Russian population on a daily basis by the media. The accusation from Moscow is that NATO is spreading in Ukraine in order to build up a so-called anti-Russia and that Russia must prevent this from happening.
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