After addressing the United Nations Security Council on the growing evidence of Russian human rights abuses and alleged war crimes against Ukrainian civilians during their invasion, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a graphic video showing images of dead Ukrainians. Some were either fully or partially burned, while others were mutilated, with many strewn across city streets or left in shallow mass graves.
(Warning: Graphic Video Below)
Zelensky ended his speech to the United Nations Security Council with a gruesome video of alleged Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. pic.twitter.com/sI33FFd9bj
— Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) April 5, 2022
According to The New York Times, Barbara Woodward, the British ambassador who is the council’s president for the month of April, described the images as harrowing.
“Speaking in my national capacity, we are appalled by what we have seen and reiterate our solidarity with Ukraine,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the accusations of violence against civilians in Bucha as “groundless,” as well as a “well-staged tragic show,” designed to “try to denigrate the Russian army.” And though China’s ambassador to the U.N., Zhang Jun, did acknowledge that the images shown were disturbing, he argued that time must be taken to establish the facts on the ground.
“Humanitarian issues should not be politicized,” Zhang said. “International aid agencies should maintain neutrality and impartiality.”
On Monday, President Joe Biden called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes following reports of civilian killings in Bucha, Ukraine.
“One comment to make before I start the day,” Biden told reporters. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter, you saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants — he is a war criminal. But we have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight, and we have to gather all the details so this can be an actual, have a war crime trial.”
“This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it,” Biden continued, before saying that he will be seeking further sanctions in response.
“They shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone … They killed entire families, adults and children and they tried to burn the bodies,” Zelensky said during his speech on Tuesday. “I am addressing you on behalf of the people who honor the memory of the deceased every single day and 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 wells, so they died there 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,” Zelensky continued. “They cut off limbs, 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. This is not different from other terrorists such as ISIS. And here it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council.”
There was “not a single crime” Russian forces “would not commit” Zelensky added.
“The world has yet to see [what] they have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country.”
Ian Haworth is a writer for The Daily Wire and contributor to Morning Wire. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.