CNN
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian troops of indiscriminately killing civilians “only for their pleasure” in an emotionally-charged tackle to the United Nations Safety Council on Tuesday, earlier than questioning the very mandate of the Safety Council itself.

Zelensky’s speech got here a day after he visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the place stunning pictures of our bodies within the streets emerged over the weekend.

On Tuesday, he associated the aftermath of Russia’s retreat from the city in horrifying element, describing complete households killed, individuals with their throats slashed, and girls raped and killed in entrance of their kids. Zelensky stated Russia’s actions had been no totally different from these of a terror group, besides that Russia is a everlasting member of the UNSC.

The Ukrainian chief then criticized the physique, asking representatives level clean: “The place is the safety that the Safety Council wants to ensure? It’s not there, although there’s a Safety Council.”

Zelensky added: “It’s apparent that the important thing establishment of the world designed to fight aggression and guarantee peace can’t work successfully.

“Girls and gents, I want to remind you of Article 1, Chapter 1 of the UN Constitution. What’s the function of our group? Its function is to take care of and be sure that peace is adhered to. And now the UN constitution is violated actually beginning with Article 1. And so what’s the level of all different Articles?” he requested.

Not less than 1,480 civilians have been killed and a minimum of 2,195 have been injured in Ukraine between the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 and April 4, a UN official stated on the assembly, citing up to date numbers from the Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The newest figures on the variety of Ukrainian civilians within the battle had “greater than doubled” for the reason that final briefing to the UNSC on March 17.

In Bucha, our bodies strewn throughout the streets and in basements had been discovered by human rights teams and documented by impartial journalists. Satellite tv for pc pictures counsel some our bodies had been there since a minimum of March 18.

In his damning speech, Zelensky stated there was “not a single crime” that the Russians “wouldn’t commit,” alleging that Russian troops had “looked for and purposefully killed anybody who served our nation.”

“They shot and killed ladies exterior their homes after they simply tried to name somebody … They killed complete households, adults and kids and so they tried to burn the our bodies,” Zelensky stated.

“I’m addressing you on behalf of the individuals who honor the reminiscence of the deceased each single day and within the reminiscence of the civilians who died, who had been shot and killed at the back of their head after being tortured,” he advised the UNSC.

“A few of them had been shot on the streets. Others had been thrown into wells, so that they died there struggling. They had been killed of their flats, homes, blown up by grenades. Civilians had been crushed by tanks whereas sitting of their automobiles in the course of the street, only for their pleasure,” he continued. “Ladies had been raped and killed in entrance of their kids. Their tongues had been pulled out solely as a result of the aggressor didn’t hear what they wished to listen to from them.”

Zelensky additionally warned that the horrors present in Bucha can be replicated in different cities throughout Ukraine. Demanding accountability, he referred to as for any Russians who’ve given “legal orders” and “carried out them by killing our individuals” to be introduced earlier than a tribunal, much like the Nuremberg trials that occurred after World Conflict II when Nazis had been placed on trial.

Individually, the United Nations on Tuesday stated that the stunning pictures from Bucha confirmed “all of the indicators” that civilians had been “straight focused and straight killed.”

In a digital press briefing, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell stated the stories rising from Bucha and different areas had been “very disturbing developments.”

She particularly referenced the “disturbing” pictures of individuals with their arms tied behind their again and of partially bare ladies whose our bodies have been burnt as additional proof suggesting the direct concentrating on of people.

“We’ve been speaking about battle crimes within the context of shelling, bombardment, and artillery assaults. Now they must be investigated. However you might argue there was a navy context, for instance, to a constructing being hit. It’s laborious to see what was the navy context of a person mendacity on the street with a bullet to the pinnacle or having their our bodies burned,” Throssell continued.

Because the OHCHR is making an attempt to presently achieve entry to Bucha, she didn’t have “actual info” to share relating to the scenario on the bottom.

Throssell additionally paid tribute to the “essential function” that journalists are enjoying in documenting these scenes, mentioning the “a number of groups” concerned in “reporting, analyzing, and sending video footage.”

Russia has repeatedly denied the alleged atrocities, regardless of growing proof suggesting in any other case. Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations responded to Zelensky’s remarks, calling the accusations towards the Russian navy “ungrounded.”

“We place in your conscience the ungrounded accusations towards the Russian navy, which aren’t confirmed by any eyewitnesses,” Nebenzia stated in translated remarks.

The ambassador recalled Zelensky’s election to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019, stating that hopes that Zelensky would finish the combating within the Donbas area of Ukraine “didn’t materialize.”

Nebenzia additionally repeated previous claims that “an enormous quantity of lies about Russian troopers and navy” proceed to proliferate.

Addressing Zelensky straight, Nebenzia concluded his remarks by claiming Russia “got here to … Ukraine” to convey peace, to not “conquer lands.”

Nebenzia’s phrases echoed these of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier Tuesday, who referred to as the allegations not solely “groundless, however … a well-staged tragic present” and “a forgery with a view to attempt to denigrate the Russian military.”