Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council via video link. The meeting addressed Ukraine’s accusation that the Russian military had killed civilians by soldiers in Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. Zelensky began his remarks by briefly describing how he had visited Bucha, which had been liberated from Russian troops, the day before.
“There is no war crime that the Russians did not commit in Bucha. They found and deliberately killed anyone who served our country; they killed women right next to their homes; they killed entire families, with adults and children, and tried to burn their bodies. Some were shot in the street, some were thrown into wells to die in agony. Those who were sitting in a car in the middle of the street were crushed by being run over by a tank. People’s limbs were cut off, their throats were cut, and women were raped and killed in front of children. And this was done by soldiers of a UN Security Council member country.” – said Zelensky.
Russia rejected the accusations, calling them “criminal provocations” and promising to provide the Council with “empirical evidence” that its military was not involved in the atrocities.
Vladimir Zelensky strongly urged the world community to help stop the war crimes being committed on Ukrainian soil today as soon as possible.
“Where are the security guarantees that the UN is supposed to provide? Obviously, the UN is simply unable to act effectively. Accountability for brutality must be imminent. The purpose of the United Nations is to maintain peace. But the UN Charter is being violated right now, in Ukraine, by Russia’s actions. We are seeing the most horrific war crimes since World War II.”
“This is the year 2022. We have compelling evidence of the crimes committed, including satellite imagery, and we can conduct a detailed investigation, giving journalists maximum access to the material, in maximum cooperation with international institutions, with the involvement of the International Criminal Court, to get the full truth and full accountability,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky reiterated his call for the Security Council to “punish once and for all” Russia, which believes that “it is allowed everything,” “to show all other potential war criminals in the world what awaits them.”
“Why did Russia invade Ukraine?” – Zelensky asked and explained:
“Because the Russian leaders feel like colonizers of ancient times: they want to seize our wealth, our people. They have already deported hundreds of thousands of our people to their own country. They have kidnapped more than two thousand children and continue to do so. Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into silent slaves. The Russian army is openly looting Ukrainian towns and villages they have seized.”
“We are dealing with a member of the UN Security Council who is trying to turn his veto power in the Security Council into a right to die. This undermines the entire system of global security by allowing criminals to go unpunished. If this continues, the countries of the world will rely only on their weapons for security, not on international laws. In that case, the UN can simply be shut down,” the president of Ukraine said.