Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister: Putin Thinks ‘Ukraine Has No Right To Exist As A Country’

On Sunday, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” with host Margaret Brennan to discuss the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

The segment covered several hot topics, including the United States’ decision to nix a plan involving Poland providing fighter jets to Ukraine, as well as the potential for Russia to employ chemical weapons in the war.

Brennan also asked Kuleba if he believes Putin’s intent relates to genocide.

“The president of Poland said that what happened in the past week, specifically the bombing of that maternity hospital that got so much attention around the world, that it bears the features of genocide,” Brenna asked. “Is that what you believe Russia’s intent is?”

Kuleba responded, saying that “Putin definitely believes that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country,” and that he claims Ukrainians are Russians. He added that bombing a maternity hospital and engaging in other “war crimes” indicates that Russia is “trying to break us down and to destroy us.”

.@DmytroKuleba tells @margbrennan: “President Putin definitely believes that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country. He doesn’t recognize our identity. He says we are Russians, we are not Ukrainians.” pic.twitter.com/6EyXLJL6PG

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 13, 2022

TRANSCRIPT:

BRENNAN: The Biden administration is warning of an impending chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. Do you have any further information about where or when, or what the consequences would be? Would NATO defend you?

KULEBA: Well, we don’t know the details, but we do not exclude that option because we see that Russia is using one prohibited weapon after another to break us down, and United Nations have already confirmed that some of the internationally prohibited weapons have been used against Ukrainian civilians, against our cities. So, we will work closely with the United States and other partners trying to identify where chemical weapons can or may be used by Russia. And when you’re asking me whether NATO will defend us, well, we do not have — we do not expect that. What we are asking is very simple thing. We say arm Ukraine, and we will do the rest. Give us all the weapons necessary and we will fight for our own land and for our people.

[…]

BRENNAN: The president of Poland said that what happened in the past week, specifically the bombing of that maternity hospital that got so much attention around the world, that it bears the features of genocide. Is that what you believe Russia’s intent is?

KULEBA: Well, Russia, President Putin definitely believes that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country. He doesn’t recognize our identity. He says we are Russians, we are not Ukrainians. We are the same, which is obviously not the case. And from what we’ve been seeing in recent three weeks is a series of deliberately-committed war crimes, crimes against humanity. And when they bomb hospitals, maternity houses, schools, when they kill civilians passing by trying to be evacuated from the war zone, that, of course, indicates that they are trying to break us down and to destroy us.

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