Russian Rights Council to Ask Int'l Organizations to Recognize Kursk Attacks as Terrorism
© Sputnik / POOL
/ Subscribe
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights will appeal to international organizations to recognize Kiev's actions in Russia's Kursk Region as terrorist, its head Valery Fadeyev said on Friday.
"I am preparing an appeal to the relevant international organizations, including human rights organizations, with a demand to recognize the terrorist nature of the actions of the Kiev regime in the Kursk Region," Fadeyev said in a post on the council's Telegram channel.
Civilian casualties among the region's population are not accidents, but cold-blooded murders, the council's head also said.
"Those are obvious crimes, as under the rules of war, soldiers are required, when possible, not to harm religious, scientific and artistic facilities. The shelling of the [Goralsky St. Nicholas] monastery was evidently deliberate," Fadeyev added.
The Geneva Convention directly prohibits targeting the civilian population and facilities, therefore the actions of the Ukrainian military qualify as violations of the Geneva Convention and war crimes, he said.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had launched an offensive to seize territory in the Kursk Region. The next day, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said the advance deep into Russian territory had been halted.
Commenting on the Kursk Region attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of launching a large-scale provocation. He also said that Ukrainian troops had shelled Russian regions indiscriminately, firing at civilian infrastructure and ambulances.
