Zelensky to address Security Council as evidence grows of Russia’s civilian killings

Ukrainian president’s speech Tuesday comes as UK and US call for the suspension of Russia from UN Human Rights Council

By Agencies Tuesday 5th April 2022 , 8:17 am

Members of Congress give Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a standing ovation before he speaks in a virtual address to Congress in the US Capitol Visitors Center Congressional Auditorium in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the UN Security Council on Tuesday, where he is expected to demand tough new sanctions on Moscow over killings in the town of Bucha he has called “war crimes” and “genocide.”

The speech, Zelensky’s first to the body since Russia’s invasion, comes after he made an emotional trip to Bucha outside the capital, Kyiv, where dozens of bodies were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops.

The United Kingdom, which holds the council presidency this month, announced late Monday that Zelensky would speak at the open meeting called for Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Zelensky is to address the UN’s most powerful body virtually after it receives briefings from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his political chief Rosemary DiCarlo, and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who is trying to arrange an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and met with senior Russian officials in Moscow on Monday and will shortly be heading to Ukraine.

Videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians, some with their hands tied behind their back, have led to global revulsion, calls for tougher sanctions on Russia and its suspension from the UN’s premier human rights body, the Human Rights Council.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address

By signing up, you agree to the terms

According to Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Bucha and other Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian troops.

Tanya Nedashkivs’ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband, killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Associated Press journalists have reported seeing dozens of bodies in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital. The bodies included a group of nine in civilian clothes who appeared to have been shot at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs. A bag of spilled groceries was near one of the dead.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Ukraine and the West on Monday of “a false flag attempt” to blame Russian troops for atrocities in Bucha that he charged were committed by Ukrainian nationalists. He called video of bodies lying in the streets “a crude forgery,” and insisted that during the time that Bucha was under Russian control, “not a single local person has suffered from any violent action.”

At a news conference, the Russian ambassador showed brief video footage of the smiling mayor of Bucha on March 31 calling the withdrawal of Russian forces a victory of the Ukrainian army and never mentioning “any mass atrocities, dead bodies, killings, graves or anything like that.” He also showed footage from Ukrainian television on April 2 showing Ukrainian soldiers entering Bucha, with “no dead bodies in the streets.”

He said Russia would present further “factual evidence” to the Security Council on Tuesday.

A cat passes by the charred bodies of people who were killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, April 4, 2022. Russia is facing a fresh wave of condemnation after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of dozens if not hundreds of civilians in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Nebenzia was asked whether he believed videos of Ukrainian family members speaking about the deaths of loved ones killed by Russian troops were also faked. He responded: “This is warfare. In warfare, anything happens. You cannot exclude that civilians are dying. That is a sad fact of life.”

But he again charged that the Bucha videos were “staged.”

Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, called the images from Bucha “harrowing, appalling, probable evidence of war crimes and possibly a genocide,” and said the Security Council needs “to think about how we deal with that.”

The council remains paralyzed on taking any action on Ukraine because Russia is one of its five permanent members that have veto power. But the 193-member General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, has condemned Russia’s invasion and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities, withdrawal of Russian forces, and protection for civilians.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced Monday that the US will soon introduce a General Assembly resolution that would suspend Russia from the UN’s premier human rights body, the 57-nation Human Rights Council, saying there are increasing signs that it committed war crimes in Ukraine. The council is based in Geneva but its members are elected by the 193-nation General Assembly.

Thomas-Greenfield told NPR late Monday that the US plans to seek a vote “as soon as possible this week, and possibly as early as Thursday.”

“The images out of Bucha and devastation across Ukraine require us to now match our words with action,” she said in a tweet Monday.

People stand next to a mass grave in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

“We cannot let a member state that is subverting every principle we hold dear to continue to participate” in the council, she said. A vote on Russia’s suspension could be held by Thursday, according to the US.

Britain joined the US in announcing plans Monday to seek Russia’s suspension from the Human Rights Council.

“Given strong evidence of war crimes, including reports of mass graves and heinous butchery in Bucha, Russia cannot remain a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Russia must be suspended,” said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Any resolution to suspend Russia’s membership rights would require support from two-thirds of member countries that vote “yes” or “no.”

Russia reacted furiously. “This is unbelievable,” said Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN. “What the West is trying to do with Russia, trying to exclude it from multilateral forums we are having in the world… this is unprecedented.”

Russia had sought an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss Bucha on Monday afternoon, but Woodward told reporters that with Tuesday’s council meeting already scheduled, “we didn’t see a good reason to have two meetings back-to-back on Ukraine.”

Nebenzia was asked if the US-led effort to suspend Russia from the rights council and Britain’s refusal to hold an emergency Security Council meeting Monday at Russia’s request would affect talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

“This will not facilitate or encourage, or be helpful, to what is happening between Russian and Ukrainian peace talks,” he said.