- A video posted to Zelenskyy's Telegram channel urged Europeans not to buy Russian gas.
- The video alternated between scenes of people filling up their cars and destruction in Ukraine.
- Western states have backed away from Russia as an energy supplier since the war began in February.
A video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Europeans of paying for Russian gas with Ukrainian lives instead of euros or rubles.
The minute-long clip, which Zelenskyy posted on Thursday to his Telegram channel, shows a smiling woman filing up her car at a gas station that features a European Union flag.
"You don't pay in euros or rubles for Russian gas and oil," text reads on the screen. "You pay in the lives of the same Europeans as you."
With calming music in the background, the video alternates between shots of individuals smiling while they fill up their cars with gas and clips of death and destruction in Ukrainian cities.
"Only three countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have the courage to refuse funding genocide," text in the video reads as it shows the flags of those three countries. "What about the rest?"
The video ends with a split-screen of a fuel payment and a montage of corpses, some burned and some buried in mass graves.
"Is there still enough courage in Europe to stop Ukraine's genocide?" the text read above the images.
—Luke Johnson (@johnson) April 7, 2022
Western states have backed away from Russia as an energy supplier in response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Europe gets about 40% of its natural gas from Russia, which is a world-leading gas and oil exporter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously threatened to stop sending gas to Europe if countries Russia designated as "unfriendly" — like the US, UK, and EU countries — don't pay in rubles.
The EU said this week it would look to ban Russian coal imports and propose a reduction of oil imports. It did not mention natural gas imports.
Its move followed sweeping international outrage and condemnation after the recent discovery of mass civilian killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which had been under Russian occupation for weeks until it was liberated by Ukrainian forces.