Following the release of brutally gruesome evidence of Russian human rights abuses and alleged war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
Speaking one day after visiting Bucha, a Kyiv suburb that was devastated by such Russian actions, Zelenksy accused Russian forces of deliberately and indiscriminately killing Ukrainian civilians “for their pleasure,” while describing the aftermath of the Russian retreat in detail.
“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. “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.”
Zelensky’s address came one day after Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, announced that the United States will seek Russia’s removal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
“I am returning to New York to do two things. One: I will take this to the Security Council tomorrow morning and address Russia’s actions directly,” Thomas-Greenfield said, according to a spokesperson. “Two: In close coordination with Ukraine, European countries and other partners at the UN, we are going to seek Russia’s suspension from the UN Human Rights Council.”
“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce. It hurts the credibility of the Council and the UN writ large. And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the UN General Assembly vote to suspend them,” Thomas-Greenfield added.
Ian Haworth is a writer for The Daily Wire and contributor to Morning Wire. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.