Speaking Reality to Power

"[As a permanent member of the UN Security Council Russia's veto power on resolutions brought to the Security Council effectively gives it a] right to kill."

"[Russia's indemnity on the Security Council has allowed it to commit the] most terrible war crimes we have seen since the Second World War; [enabling it to engage in] sowing death [as it behaves like a] colonizer from ancient times."

"It's clear that the world's key institution, that is supposed to force any aggressor into accepting peace, simply cannot effectively operate."

"[The actions of Russian troops were] no different from other terrorists [such as Islamic State.] Here it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council. [Unless it is transformed], the UN can simply be closed."

"Ladies and gentlemen, are  you ready to close the UN? Do you think the time of international law is gone?"

"If your answer is no, you need to act immediately. The system must be reformed immediately so the veto is not the right to kill."

"We need peace. Ukraine needs peace. Europe needs peace. And the world needs peace." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

In speaking remotely to the United Nations Security council, Ukraine's embattled president called for Kremlin leaders to face Nuremberg-type trials. First off, the way should be made clear for Russia to be taken off the Security Council; failing that the UN should take steps to admit its total lack of accountability to its mission to serve the international community by diplomatically guiding nations away from conflict, and in the current context, irenic Russia's display of inhumanity by invading and attempting to crush another nation resonates as a UN failure to act up to its mandate.

 

The Security Council session was called to consider Ukrainian allegations of mass murder of civilians in the town of Bucha by Russian soldiers.

 

President Zelenskyy's passion of cold anger with Russia and disgust with its continued position of responsibility to a core value of settling differences without resort to war, indicating the failure of  the UN to enforce its own dedication to world peace, in addressing the UN's Security Council was fuelled by the gruesome discovery of the Russian military having committed war crimes in the senseless mass murder of innocent civilians in areas of their occupation in Ukraine.

Where in the town of Bucha, a suburb of the Ukraine capital of Kyiv, hundreds of bodies were discovered in a mass grave. Where bodies of the dead were lying in the street. Victims of the Russian military who fired on people desperate to escape the town and the butchering brutality of Russian military control. Where civilian cars carrying families fleeing the violence were hit by artillery and sharpshooters; people on bicycles, on foot. People with their arms tied behind their backs, shot point-blank.

This is a country with a permanent seat on the Security Council alongside Britain, France, The United States and China. Where a divided Security Council sees the first three voting together and China and Russia often voting in opposition where their interests are involved. And that proved to be so when Russia blocked a resolution calling for an immediate end to its invasion of Ukraine.

A burnt and destroyed street in Bucha, Ukraine (Matthew Hatcher / SOPA / LightRocket / Getty)

 

In besieged Mariupol in Ukraine's east, people still attempt to flee on foot or by private car, risking being shot or hit by artillery fire. Moscow has consistently denied requests for temporary cease-fires and safe corridors for people to be able to evacuate the ruins of the city where bombs continue dropping and artillery fire never stops. Efforts to organize mass evacuations by bus to safer areas of Ukraine consistently fail.

Overtures by the International Committee of the Red Cross invariably have failed in negotiations with the Russian military to allow safe passage out of Mariupol of terrified citizens. Buses attempting to arrive in Mariupol to evacuate people are met by Russian blockades. The situation explained by Russia's defence ministry as Ukraine's fault since its forces had "cynically disrupted" evacuation efforts. Just as the Kremlin describes the massacres in Bucha as a ploy by the Ukrainian military to smear Russia's reputation.

Mariupol, Ukraine. Sergei Bobylev / TASS