Mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities by Russia constitute war crimes under international law, the presidents of the Bucharest Nine group of countries, accompanied by the presidents of North Macedonia and Montenegro, said on Tuesday.
"We, the Presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia condemn the mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities recently carried out by Russia, which constitute war crimes under international law," they said in a statement.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. It has denied deliberately attacking civilians.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz, Editing by William Maclean)
