The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is disappointed with the unwillingness of French President Emmanuel Macron to recognize the genocide of Ukrainians by the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said.

"The reluctance of French President Emmanuel Macron to recognize the genocide of Ukrainians after all the frank statements of the Russian leadership and the criminal actions of the Russian military is disappointing. Ukraine and Russia are historically close for objective reasons, but the myth of two brotherly peoples of Russia and Ukraine began to collapse after the occupation of Crimea and aggression in Donbas in 2014. Then the Russian 'brothers' allegedly came to defend the Russian-speaking population. But in eight years they killed 14,000 Ukrainians," Nikolenko told the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday.

He stressed that this myth was finally destroyed when the first Russian missiles flew at Ukrainian cities in February.

"Brotherly' people do not kill children, do not shoot civilians, do not rape women, do not maim the elderly and do not destroy the houses of other 'brotherly' people. Even the most bitter enemies do not resort to atrocities against defenseless people. So far, there are neither moral nor real grounds to talk about 'brotherly' ties between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples," Nikolenko said.