Ukrainian diaspora urges the world to respond to Russian artillery shelling of Avdiivka

The international community must respond to the shelling by Russian armed forces in Ukraine despite the Minsk agreements.

This has been stated by President of the World Congress of Ukrainians Eugene Czolij, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"The Ukrainian World Congress urges the international community to significantly strengthen the targeted economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and to provide Ukraine with military assistance in response to this deliberate escalation of artillery by Russian military forces, the refusal by the Russian Federation to honor the Minsk agreements, and the brutal disdain of the Russian Federation for the lives of innocent children, women and men living on the war-torn territory in Eastern Ukraine,” UWC President Eugene Czolij wrote.

Drawing attention to the potential for yet another humanitarian crisis in the region, the UWC President supported the conclusion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine that these military actions amount to a war crime in violation of the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, specifically, the “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”

ish