EU chief vows to hold Russia ‘accountable’ after Ukraine dam attack

European Union chief vows to hold Russia 'accountable' after Ukraine dam attack, Charles Michel has expressed shocks at an attack on a major Ukraine dam and pledged to hold Russia accountable......

Posted Africanews360 June 6, 2023 1 Min Read

Updated 2023/06/06 at 11:19 AM

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - MARCH 25: President of the European Council Charles Michel is talking to media at the end of a virtual EU Leader summit in the Justus Lipsius, the EU Council headquarter on March 25, 2021 in Brussels, Belgium. On the Covid-19 crisis, the leaders declare: 'Accelerating the production, delivery and deployment of vaccines remains essential and urgent to overcome the crisis. Efforts to this end must be further intensified. We underline the importance of transparency as well as of the use of export authorisations. We recognise the importance of global value chains and reaffirm that companies must ensure predictability of their vaccine production and respect contractual delivery deadlines. We confirm the pro-rata population key for the allocation of vaccines. We invite the Committee of Permanent Representatives to address the issue of the speed of deliveries of vaccines when allocating the 10 million BioNTech-Pfizer accelerated doses in the second quarter of 2021 in a spirit of solidarity.' (Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

EU chief Charles Michel on Tuesday expressed shock at an attack on a major Ukraine dam and pledged to hold Russia accountable for the “war crime” of destroying civilian infrastructure.

“Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam. The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime — and we will hold Russia and its proxies accountable,” European Council chief Michel wrote on social media.

Michel, the head of the body that brings together EU leaders, said he would propose “more assistance to the flooded areas” at their next summit in Brussels this month.

“My thoughts with all the families in Ukraine affected by this catastrophe,” he wrote.

The Russian-held dam in southern Ukraine was damaged on Tuesday, with Kyiv and Moscow accusing each other of blowing it up while locals were forced to flee rising waters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian forces “terrorists” and said the attack showed they “needed to be expelled from every corner” of his country.