Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday told the U.N. Security Council that Russia should be removed from the U.N. body over what he said were atrocities that were committed near Kyiv.
In an address, the Ukrainian leader said Russia should be held accountable and urged the United Nations to take action. Over the weekend, Kyiv officials alleged that Russian forces tortured and massacred civilians in Bucha, which Moscow has categorically denied while accusing the Ukraine government of staging a provocation.
“Now the world can see what Russian military did in Bucha, but the world has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the U.N. Security Council should “dissolve” altogether if it doesn’t take action against Moscow.
“If there is no alternative and no option, then the next option would be [to] dissolve yourself altogether,” Zelenskyy remarked.
“We are dealing with a state that is turning the veto [in] the U.N. Security Council into the right to die,” Zelenskyy said in his address. “This undermines the whole architecture of global security and allows them to go unpunished.”
“The main thing is today, it’s time to transform the system, the United Nations,” he told the Security Council.
The Kremlin did not issue a public response to Zelenskyy’s remarks on Tuesday. However, earlier in the day, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov alleged that Ukrainian forces staged the massacre in Bucha and are planning to stage more in other areas.
“The troops of the 72nd Ukrainian Main Center for Psychological Operations conducted another staged filming of civilians allegedly killed by violent actions of the Russian armed forces in order for it to be distributed through the Western media,” Konashenkov said during a briefing, according to state television.
The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify either Ukraine’s or Russia’s claims about the Bucha massacre. Photos and video footage uploaded online by Kyiv officials appeared to show mass graves and bodies lying in the streets.
Also on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted that the focus on Bucha is an attempt by the United States and NATO members to disrupt peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
“We tend to think that the reason lies in the desire to find a reason to disrupt the ongoing negotiations. And to do it exactly at the moment when, as they say, the light, even if not very bright, but nevertheless, began to dawn,” Lavrov said via state-run media.
