Ukraine President Zelenskyy To Address UNSC Today, Promises To Conduct 'Most Open Probe Into Civilian Killings'
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he will address the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday after witnessing the Bucha massacre by Russian troops.
New Delhi: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to intensify and even after several rounds of talk both the countries have not been able to find a solution to stop the ceasefire resulting in deaths of thousands of civilians. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he will address the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, after saying it is in Kyiv's interest to have the most open probe into the killing of civilians in Ukraine.
According to a report by Reuters, Zelenskyy said on Monday that in Bucha, where mass graves and bodies were found after Ukraine took the town back from Russian forces, at least 300 civilians have been killed, and he expects that in Borodyanka and other towns the number of casualties may be even higher. He said that Kyiv will conduct the most open investigation into the killing of civilians in Ukraine.
"I would like to emphasise that we are interested in the most complete, transparent investigation, the results of which will be known and explained to the entire international community," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
This will be the first time that Zelenskyy addresses the Security Council since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the Council.
The Council and the General Assembly have held several meetings, including a rare Emergency Special Session in the 193-member Assembly on the situation in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also said that Russia needs to move quickly to negotiate an agreement to end the war. After visiting Bucha outside Kyiv where hundreds of civilians were found dead after Russian troops' retreat last week, he said that the evidence of atrocities makes it hard to conduct talks with Russia.
It's very difficult to conduct negotiations when you see what they did here, Zelenskyy said, adding that in Bucha and other places dead people have been found in barrels, basements, strangled, tortured.
He added that the Russian leadership needs to think faster if it has what to think with.
Zelenskyy added that the longer the Russian Federation drags it out, the worse it will exacerbate its own situation and this war.
The images of battered bodies out in the open or in hastily dug graves in Bucha shocked everyone raising a global outrage. People across the globe called for tougher sanctions against the Kremlin, namely a cutoff of fuel imports from Russia. Germany reacted by expelling 40 Russian diplomats, and Lithuania threw out its Russian ambassador.
European leaders and the United Nations human rights chief condemned the bloodshed, some of them also branding it genocide, and U.S. President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin should face a war crimes trial.
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