Ukraine: Five highlights of Zelensky's speech to the UN

Europe 1 with AFP 7:12 p.m., April 05, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday urged the UN to act "immediately" against Russia in view of its "war crimes" committed according to him in Ukraine, calling in particular for its exclusion from the Security Council, while Moscow denies any accusation of atrocities.

After the shock wave caused by the discovery last weekend of numerous corpses in Boutcha, near kyiv, where Ukraine accuses the Russians of massacre, the European Union and Washington have also intensified their economic and diplomatic pressure against Russia in the hope of making it let go.

Zelensky calls for reform of the UN system

For the Ukrainian president, the violence in Boutcha, where dozens of corpses of people wearing civilian clothes have been discovered in recent days, is comparable to the violence carried out "by terrorists like Daesh", but committed "by a member of the Council of United Nations security".

Volodymyr Zelensky thus called for Russia to be excluded from the Security Council, whose presence as a permanent member makes such a decision practically impossible, and for a reform of the UN system, so that "the right of veto does not mean no right to die".

Otherwise, the United Nations would "just shut down", he said.

"Now we need Security Council decisions for peace in Ukraine. If you don't know how to make this decision, you can do two things," the Ukrainian president said.

"Either exclude Russia as an aggressor and initiator of the war so that it does not block decisions relating to its own aggression. Then do everything we can to achieve peace," urged Volodymyr Zelensky in the presence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

"Or the other option is to please show that we can reform or change (...). If there is no alternative or option, the next option would be to downright dissolve you", further supported the Ukrainian president.

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The account of the acts committed by the Russian army

Because in Ukraine, he said to the representatives of the member countries, his fellow citizens "were killed in their apartments, in their houses with grenades; civilians were crushed by tanks while they were in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure."

"They chopped off limbs, slit throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children, their tongues cut out because they couldn't hear what they wanted to hear," he said since then. a desk, a white wall and the flag of Ukraine in the background.

Russia must be 'held accountable' for 'worst war crimes'

These actions show that "now the Charter of the United Nations is literally violated, from its first article", said Volodymyr Zelensky, asking that Russia be "held responsible" for "the worst war crimes" committed since the Second World War , according to him.

"If this continues, countries will only be able to rely on the power of their own forces to ensure security, and no longer on international law, on international institutions," and "the United Nations would only have to close ."

"The UN Charter must be restored immediately," he called.

The broadcast of a video of “appalling images”

The Ukrainian president also denounced the "colonization" of Russia.

"They need our wealth, our people. Russia has already returned hundreds of thousands of our citizens to their country. They have kidnapped more than 2,000 children," continued the Ukrainian president.

"Russia wants to make Ukrainians silent slaves."

Following this statement and the broadcast of a video of "terrifying images", in the words of the British ambassador Barbara Woodward, the Russian representative to the Security Council replied to the Ukrainian president.

Russia denies atrocity charges

"We did not come to Ukraine to conquer territories", declared Vassily Nebenzia, again contesting the accusations of atrocities targeting the Russian army: "you saw corpses and heard testimonies, but you only saw what you were shown. You cannot ignore the glaring inconsistencies in the version of events promoted by Ukrainian and Western media."

He also said his country had evacuated "600,000 people" from Ukraine, including "more than 119,000 children".

"And we are not talking, in any way, (of people leaving) under duress or abducted, as described by our Western partners, but of voluntary decisions," he said.