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Close down UN or reform and act: Zelensky tells UNSC
Volodymyr Zelensky said that ‘punishing Russia’ was essential to preventing future war-time crimes and said that Moscow has turned its veto in the Council into the ‘right to die’.
Comparing Russian war crimes in Ukraine to that of the Islamic State (Daesh), and demanding full accountability through a tribunal on the lines of Nuremberg, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a virtual address to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), said that UN should either close down and dissolve itself or undertake drastic reforms and throw out Russia from the Council if it wants to do more than talk and fulfil its mandate to maintain international peace and security.
Zelensky, who ended his speech with a video which showed bodies littered on streets, dead children, and mass graves in different Ukrainian cities, including Bucha, also said that “punishing Russia” was essential to preventing future war-time crimes and said that Moscow has turned its veto in the Council into the “right to die”.
Russia rejected the allegations, alleged that Ukraine was being run by Nazis, accused Ukrainian forces of killing people and staging videos, and said it was determined to “cut out the malignant Nazi tumour” in Ukraine. Its permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, also claimed that Russia was not shooting against civilian targets, and warned Ukraine that it was being used as a pawn by western powers.
But it was Zelensky’s graphic speech that was the highlight of the Council’s deliberations on Ukraine. It came soon after the discovery of civilian killings and mass graves in Bucha, soon after Russia withdrew troops from near Kyiv, that have sparked global outrage and led to calls for war crimes investigation.
“I returned from the city of Bucha yesterday, liberated from Russian troops. There is not a single crime they have not committed,” claimed Zelensky. He then listed out a set of accusations against Russian forces - searching for and killing anyone who served Ukraine; killing women, adults and children; torturing and killing civilians; slashing their throats; rapes, mass graves, among others - and said these were no different from crimes committed by Daesh. “Here it is being done by a member of the UNSC.”
Zelensky said that while the crimes at Bucha had come to light, Russia had embarked on a similar campaign across other cities and towns of Ukraine. “Geography may be different but crimes are the same and accountability must be inevitable.”
Terming Russians as colonisers, the Ukrainian president said it was time to “punish Russia” - and doing so will show other potential war criminals how they will be punished too. He claimed that if action had been taken when Russia displayed aggression in Crimea, Molodova, Georgia and “tyranny had received a response”, then the world would have been different.
Preempting Russian defence on the issue, Zelensky said they were aware what Moscow would say - of blaming others to justify their actions, and claiming that this was staged. “We have conclusive evidence, satellite images.”
He called for a full and transparent investigation, maximum cooperation with journalists, international organisations and the International Criminal Court for “full accountability, and war crimes trials for Russian forces as well as those who issued orders on lines of Nuremberg.
A key component of Zelensky’s speech was focused on a critique of the UN itself and its inability to perform the role mandated for it in the UN charter when Russia, he said, was committing the worst war crimes in the world since the Second World War.
“Although there is the UNSC, where is the peace? The key institution of the world simply cannot act effectively…If this continues, countries will rely on their power of own arms to ensure their own security, not on international law, not on international institutions.”
And if this was the case, Zelensky said it was time to “simply close the UN”.
“Are you ready to close the UN? Do you think time for international law has gone. If your answer is no, act immediately. Reform the UN immediately so that veto is not right to die.”
He added this reform must also include representation of all regions in the Council, and proposed both a global conference and international mechanism in Kiev to reform the world’s security system.
The Ukrainian leader told UNSC that it had two choices. “Either remove Russia as an aggressor and source of war so that it cannot make a decision. The next option is dissolve yourselves altogether if there is nothing you can do besides conversation. Ukraine and Europe need peace.”
