Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into “silent slaves” as he told the UN Security Council that Vladimir Putin’s forces must be brought to justice.
The Ukrainian president was addressing the United Nations Security Council and said that Russia is “pursuing its policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity during its invasion of Ukraine”.
In the impassioned speech, he also said that Russian soldiers are “deliberately creating conditions in occupied territories so that as many civilians as possible are killed” during their invasion of Ukraine.
“Russian troops are deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities to ashes with artillery and airstrikes, they are deliberately blocking cities, creating mass starvation,” he added.
Russia has categorically rejected “all allegations” of war crimes and claims videos and images from the devastated town of Bucha have been faked.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres began the meeting in New York by saying: “The war in Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace architecture founded on the United Nations Charter because of its nature, intensity and consequences.”
Several European countries have expelled Russian diplomats from their borders since the start of the war 41 days ago, with the US, EU, and the UK together sanctioning over 1,000 Russian individuals and businesses.
Satellite imagery shows bodies in Bucha lay in the street for weeks
‘They cut off limbs, slashed their throats’
Mr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that he was speaking in “the memory of the deceased”.
It comes after he previously described civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha as “genocide of the Ukrainian people”.
He said: “Everything in the memory of the civilians who died, who were shot and killed in the back of their head after being tortured.
“Some of them were shot on the streets. Others were thrown into the wells. So they die. They are suffering. They were killed in their apartments, houses 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, slashed their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children.”
He said that there is “not a single crime” that the Russians would not commit, adding that the Russian military had searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country.
“They killed, shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone who is alive, they killed entire families, adults and children. And they tried to burn the bodies,” he said.
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Russia wants to turn Ukraine into ‘silent slaves’
Ukraine’s leader also listed a series of allegations against Russia and its forces – all of which have not been verified and will continue to be denied by Moscow.
“Russia’s leadership feels like colonisers in ancient times,” he said. “They need our wealth, our people.
“Russia has already deported hundreds of thousands of our citizens to their country. They abducted more than two thousand children.”
He continued: “You just simply abducted those children and continue to do so. Russia wants to turn Ukraine into silent slaves.
“The Russian military is looting openly the cities and villages they have captured.
“This is why it’s called looting. They are stealing everything, starting with food and with earrings – gold earrings that are pulled out and covered with blood.”
He told the council that Russia will continue to blame others for the atrocities in Ukraine, saying: “They will blame everyone just to justify their own actions. They will say that there are various versions, different versions, that it is impossible to establish which one of those versions is true.
“They will even say that the bodies were of those killed were allegedly thrown away and all the videos are staged. But it is 2022. Now we have conclusive evidence.”
Zelenskyy urges UN Security Council to expel Russia, reform or dissolve itself
Mr Zelenskyy added that the world is “dealing with a state that is turning the veto into the UN Security Council into the right to die”, referencing Russia’s right as a permanent member of the council to veto resolutions it makes.
“This undermines the whole architecture of global security. It allows them to go unpunished,” he said.
He went on to say that the council should “remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war”.
Mr Zelenskyy said that an alternative would be for the council to reform, before adding: “Then the next option would be to dissolve yourself altogether.”