Remember
Bucha; President Zelenskyy Demands that UN Punish Russia
A few days after the world learned of the unspeakable atrocities
committed against the civilian population of Bucha by withdrawing Russian
soldiers, President Zelenskyy came to the United Nations Security Council to
denounce Russia, one of the founding members of the UN, and demand its
expulsion from this body.
If the United Nations can’t punish an aggressor and violator of
the UN Charter like the murderous predator Russia in order to protect the
international community from premeditated ruination at the hands of global
outlaws, Zelenskyy asserted on Tuesday, April 5, then the international
organization should be dissolved.
“And now we need decisions from the Security Council. For peace in
Ukraine. If you do not know how to adopt this decision, you can do two things,”
Zelenskyy challenged the UN’s highest executive organ.
“Remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war from blocking
decisions about its own aggression, its own war. And then do everything that
can establish peace.
“Or show how you can reformat and really work for peace.
“Or if your current format is unalterable and there is simply no
way out, then the only option would be to dissolve yourself altogether.”
Zelenskyy hellfire and brimstone appearance at the UN was
anticipated ever since he visited Bucha and experienced for himself the
emotional pain of seeing old and young Ukrainians butchered by Russian
invaders. Photos and video clips of murders and devastation have appeared in
news media since the weekend.
He surely saw one blackened body that had arms raised in
supplication, the face contorted in a horrible scream. He saw a blackened body
of a woman on the street, faced won. The skull of another had a bullet hole in
the left temple. The small blackened foot of a child could be seen in the jumble
of charred bodies piled together. The six burned and blackened corpses were
just the latest gruesome scene to be seared into Zelenskyy memory.
The President of Ukraine saw the pile of bodies just off a residential
street, near a colorful and empty playground, visible to passersby as they
warily went outdoors to collect aid. In a house nearby, the twisted and bloody
body of a young man who had been shot to death lay in the basement entrance. At
least four other bodies lay strewn in the street, one with the eye gouged out,
apparently by a bullet. Another body that of a male was in a storm drain.
These images must have prompted Zelenskyy to declare prior to
speaking to the UN Security Council that it would be impossible to continue negotiating
with the Russians after accusing Moscow of genocide.
“It might happen that there will be no negotiations,” Zelenskyy
said on Ukrainian state TV on Tuesday. Zelenskyy said it would be
understandable to not speak to Putin after accusing Russian troops of carrying
out war crimes in Ukraine. “It would be easy to say I’m not going to talk to
you -- and it would be understandable, after what you have done, that’s why.”
In his video appearance at the UN, Zelenskyy recounted, “It is
difficult to find a war crime that the occupiers have not committed there. The
Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our
state. They executed women outside the houses when approaching and simply
calling someone alive. They killed whole families - adults and children. And
they tried to burn their bodies.”
He continued, “I am addressing you on behalf of the people who
honor the memory of the deceased every day. Every day, in the morning. The
memory of the killed civilians. Who were shot in the back of the head or in the
eye after being tortured. Who were shot just on the streets. Who were thrown
into the well, so that they die there in suffering. Who were killed in
apartments, houses, blown up by grenades. Who were crushed by tanks in civilian
cars in the middle of the road. For fun. Whose limbs were cut off, whose throat
was cut. Who were raped and killed in front of their own children. Their tongues
were torn out only because they did not hear from them what they wanted to
hear.”
He added that the “Russian militaries are openly looting the
cities and villages they have captured. This is looting of the highest scale.
They steal everything from food to gold earrings they just rip out with blood.”
But he didn’t mention the 11 Russian heroes who raped and sodomized a
9-year-old girl after killing her parents. This group carved a “Z” on her chest
and took group selfies for their mothers. He didn’t mention that open air
markets in Belarus are selling crucifixes ripped off dead Ukrainian children.
Zelenskyy reminded the Security Council members that these heinous
crimes were committed by a permanent member of the United Nations Security
Council. This unpunished behavior “destroys the internal unity of states. Destroys
state borders. Promotes hatred at the state level and seeks to export it to
other countries through its system of propaganda and political corruption.”
Accusing the United Nations of inaction, Zelenskyy questioned
where is the security that the Security Council is expected to provide.
“I would like to remind you of the first article of the first
chapter of the UN Charter. What is the purpose of our organization? To maintain
peace. And to force to peace. Now the UN Charter is being violated literally
from the first article. And if so, what is the point of all other articles,”
Zelenskyy stated.
“Today, it is as a result of Russia’s actions on the territory of
my state, on the territory of Ukraine, that the most heinous war crimes of all
time since the end of World War II are being committed. Russian troops are
deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities to ashes with artillery and air
strikes.”
The Ukrainian President said the massacre in Bucha is just one of
many examples of what the occupiers have been doing in Ukraine for 41 days and
there are other victimized towns: Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka,
Borodyanka and dozens of other Ukrainian communities.
If this behavior continues unchecked, he said, it will result in
countries taking arms to resolve problems rather than turning to international
law.
“The power of the UN Charter must be restored immediately. The UN
system must be reformed immediately so that the right of veto is not a right to
kill. So that there is a fair representation of all regions of the world in the
Security Council,” he said. “The aggressor must be forced to peace immediately.
Determination is needed.”
Zelenskyy demanded that the Russian military and those who gave
them orders be immediately brought to justice for war crimes in Ukraine. “Everyone
who gave criminal orders and fulfilled them by killing people will face a
tribunal similar to the Nuremberg trials.”
Turning to Russia, he reminded the member-state that the likes of
Ribbentrop and Eichmann were eventually captured and executed.
“Prevent aggression and force aggressors to peace. Have the
determination and ability to punish if the principles of peace are violated,”
he said of the need to prevent wars and bloodshed while ensuring peace.
The Russian massacre of civilians and the rape of girls in Bucha have
left a deep wound in the Ukrainian national psyche that will surely fester for
generations. Much of the grief is vented in the Ukrainian and Russian languages through personal reflections, essays, videos, poems and even comedy. In one of
poems, a woman expresses the story of a girl who apologizes to her mother for
having to leave her life, her body after being viciously raped and left without
her natural ability to be a mother sometime in the future.
Another eye
witness wrote that what people now see in Ukrainian towns Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel
reminds of the pictures of wars in the former Yugoslavia: the completely ruined
Croatian town of Vukovar; Bosnian villages, with blown-up roofs, executed men
and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, mass rapes, and mass graves.
However, it is not necessary to compare Russian atrocities of today to previous
violent crimes against humanity. Russia alone occupies an honored spot in the premier league of murderers.
Russian invaders came
to plunder and kill for joy. They kill people, their cattle, and their pets and
destroy everything they cannot take with them. For them, men and women of all
ages are just their prey to be hunted, pillaged, tortured, and raped.
A soldier wrote verses to his mother telling her that on the
frontline he learned to pray. I talked with God and came to believe that
without sincere prayers, we will not achieve victory, he wrote.
The newsreels documented wherever the professional or amateur
cameraman went the Ukrainian people’s reborn hatred for Russia, Russians and
Putin.
You can read the full text of President Zelenskyy address
here: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/vistup-prezidenta-ukrayini-na-zasidanni-radi-bezpeki-oon-74121
#RememberBucha
#StandWithUkraine
#ThereWillAlwaysBeUkraine
