Zelenskyy Just Told The UN That Russia Is Committing 'War Crimes' In Bucha, Ukraine
"Geography might be different, but cruelty is the same crime."
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Right: UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, in which he accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine's city of Bucha and across the country.
"The Russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in Ukraine," he said.
Zelenskyy appeared on the UN screen from Kyiv looking tired and unshaven, and he rattled off a long list of accusations against the Russian military. He also appealed to the UN to step in and do more to help his people.
“The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their houses,” said Zelenskyy. "They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies.”
Zelenskyy said he was speaking from personal experience after leaving Kyiv for the first time since the invasion began to visit Bucha. He told the UN that he saw civilians who appeared to have been tortured and shot in the back of the head, per the Associated Press.
“Some of them were shot on the streets. Others were thrown into the wells, so they died there in suffering. They were killed in their apartments and houses that were blown up by grenades. Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs and slashed their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them,” he said.
Images have recently surfaced that appear to show the bodies of Ukrainians shot to death in Bucha with their hands tied behind them. Satellite images also show bodies scattered around the city lying in the open for weeks, reported the New York Times.
However, Russian officials firmly deny all accusations linking them to the killings of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha. Instead, they are claiming that Ukraine planted the bodies to make Russia look like the bad guy.
Zelenskyy told the U.N. that other countries need to pay attention to what Russia has done since the war broke out in February.
“Now the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha while keeping the city under their occupation, but the world has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country,” he said. “Geography might be different, but cruelty is the same crime, and accountability must be inevitable.”
President Zelenskyy even drew parallels between Russian forces and terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (a.k.a. Daesh).
“So this is no different from other terrorists such as Daesh who occupied some territories,” said President Zelenskyy.
“Here, it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council.”
Since the war began, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says over 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes as of March 31, 2022, which accounts for a quarter of the country's population.
The Ukraine crisis has sparked the biggest refugee migration in Europe since World War II, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.