The United Nations has been challenged by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to \u201cact immediately\u201d or \u201cdissolve yourself altogether\u201d.<\/p>\n
Volodymyr Zelensky made the call during a blistering address on Tuesday in which he showed harrowing footage of dead bodies \u2014 including children \u2014 he said were victims of Russian atrocities.<\/p>\n
Likening Russia\u2019s actions in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities to violence carried out by \u201cterrorists\u201d such as the Islamic State group, Zelensky called on the 15-member Security Council \u2014 which aims to ensure international peace and security \u2014 to expel Russia \u201cso it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war.\u201d
\nRussia, as one of the five permanent members of the Council, has a veto, which it has repeatedly wielded to block resolutions and negotiations on the global stage.<\/p>\n
That means it cannot be expelled from the body, as it would simply veto any vote or recommendation by the Security Council to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is no alternative\u2026 then the next option would be to dissolve yourself altogether,\u201d Zelensky continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen, are you ready to close the UN?\u2026 If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bearded and dressed in his now trademark military green T-shirt, Zelensky, speaking remotely from Kyiv, gave a chilling rendition of the atrocities he said were carried out by Russian troops against civilians in Bucha, a town outside the Ukrainian capital.<\/p>\n
Bucha had been occupied by Russian troops, but when they withdrew recently, Ukrainian authorities and independent international journalists including AFP found bodies of people in civilian clothing, some with their hands tied behind their backs.<\/p>\n
Zelensky aired a graphic, 90-second clip of what he said were images from towns including Bucha and the southern port of Mariupol.<\/p>\n
The footage showed partially uncovered dead people \u2014 including children \u2014 in shallow graves, several bodies in a courtyard and dead people with hands tied behind their back slumped towards a wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were killed in their apartments, houses, blowing up grenades, civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs\u2026 slashed their throats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen were raped and killed in front of their children, their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressors did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is no different from other terrorists such as Daesh\u2026 and here it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council,\u201d he said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccountability must be inevitable,\u201d he said, claiming \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of Ukrainians had been deported to Russia, and that \u201chundreds\u201d of thousands could eventually be.<\/p>\n
Moments later Russia\u2019s ambassador, in his own comments, rejected the claims entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations has been challenged by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to \u201cact immediately\u201d or \u201cdissolve yourself altogether\u201d. Volodymyr Zelensky made the call during a blistering address on Tuesday in which he showed harrowing footage of dead bodies \u2014 including children \u2014 he said were victims of Russian atrocities. Likening Russia\u2019s actions in Bucha and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":172936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[514,34531,34532,9687,34533,34534,20754],"class_list":["post-172926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-affair","tag-august-alsina","tag-jada-pinkett-smith","tag-sign","tag-six-figure-deal","tag-tell-all-book","tag-write"],"yoast_head":"\n