London: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned the United Nations that it is giving Russia a “right to sow death” by allowing it a veto on the Security Council as he called for the removal of Moscow from the 15-member panel in response to war crime allegations.
After witnessing first hand the horrors of Bucha, a suburb of the capital Kyiv, where images have surfaced of many bodies of civilians, Zelensky said the UN Security Council was “useless” if it could not find a way to hold the perpetrators to account.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks via remote feed during a meeting of the UN Security Council.Credit:AP Photo/John Minchillo
He said some victims in Bucha were “shot and killed in the back of their heads,” while “some were shot on the street, others thrown into wells”. The graphic images have led to global condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and demands he be tried for war crimes.
In his first speech to the body since the invasion more than a month ago, Zelensky said he did not wish to negotiate with Russia and would rather a powerless and outdated UN purge Russia of the veto power it wields on the Security Council. Failing that, the organisation should dissolve itself, he said.
“This undermines the whole architecture of global security, it allows them to go unpunished so they are destroying everything that they can,” he said, adding that Russia’s leadership was acting like “colonisers from ancient times”.
“It is obvious that the key institution of the world which must ensure the coercion of any aggressor to peace simply cannot work effectively.”
As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia has a veto with which it can block attempts to censure the Kremlin. The US and Britain have led calls for Russia to also be removed from the UN’s Human Rights Committee.
European Union nations are poised to adopt sweeping new sanctions against Putin, including banning imports of coal, wood, chemicals and other products worth about $18 billion a year.
Zelensky said the most terrible war crimes since World War II had been carried out in his nation, comparing the atrocities to those committed by the terrorist group Islamic State.
“Women were raped and killed in front of their children … with their tongues pulled out”, he said, adding that it was “done by a member of the UN Security Council”.
Journalists stand by a mass grave in Bucha on Monday.Credit:AP
“The Russian military are looting openly the cities and villages they have captured. They are stealing everything starting with food, ending with gold earrings that are pulled out and covered in blood.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defence denied responsibility after Ukrainian forces discovered almost 400 dead civilians in the streets, some with their hands bound or with gunshot wounds to the head, as they retook the town on Friday.
Multiple civilian corpses were also found elsewhere in the town, including the village’s mayor, her husband and son. Other bodies showed evidence of torture and mutilation.
But satellite imagery released by Western officials showing corpses scattered along the streets appears to have debunked Russian claims that the civilians were placed on the streets after its forces had left the Kyiv suburb.
The UN Human Rights Office said the images were extremely disturbing and underlined that international law prohibited deliberate attacks on civilians.
Zelensky accused the West of having “watched and did not want to see” the occupation of Crimea and the Georgian war, warning that cannot be allowed to happen again.
“The Russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in Ukraine,” he said.
“Anyone who has given criminal orders and carried out them by killing our people will be brought before the tribunal, which should be similar to the Nuremberg tribunals.”
The city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, was hit by Russian strikes early on Tuesday (AEST), after Moscow’s forces said they were shifting their military aims to target the east of the country.
Reports from the city suggest there was a strike at around 3am (Ukraine time) that destroyed a central school, located near a police station, and left a crater about 10 metres wide next to the damaged building.
Ukrainian authorities warned recently that they expected fighting in eastern Ukraine to intensify after Moscow pulled forces from around the capital Kyiv to focus on the “liberation” of the eastern Donbas region.
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