UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday accused Russia of becoming a “terrorist” state carrying out “daily terrorist acts” and urged Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations .
In a virtual address to the UN Security Council, Zelenskyy urged the UN to establish an international tribunal to investigate “the actions of Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil” and hold the country accountable.
“We must act urgently to do everything we can to make Russia stop the massacre,” Zelensky said, warning that otherwise Russia’s “terrorist activity” would spread to other European countries and to Asia, highlighting the Baltic states, Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan.
“What is punished at the level of criminals and specific criminal organizations should not go unpunished at the level of a state that has become a terrorist,” he said. “Daily terrorist acts. No days off. They work as terrorists every day.”
In urging Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations of 193 members, Zelenskyy cited Article 6 of the Charter of the United Nations which states that a member “who has persistently violated the principles contained in this Charter may be expelled from the organization by the General Assembly with the recommendation “. of the Security Council ”.
Expulsion from Russia, however, is virtually impossible. This is because, as a permanent member of the council, Russia could use its veto to block any attempt to remove it.
Ukraine convened a board meeting following Russia’s recent escalation of attacks, including Monday’s airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk, which according to Zelenskyy killed at least 18 people and has injured 30 more. “Dozens are missing” and body fragments have been found including hands and feet, he said, adding that unfortunately there may be more casualties.
The Ukrainian leader began his speech by listing the attacks in Russia in recent days and giving the names and ages of many of the victims. He ended his speech by asking the 15 members of the Security Council and other people in the chamber to stand in silence to commemorate the “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian children and adults killed in the war.
All members stood up, including Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky.
When he took the floor later, Polyansky protested to give Zelensky a second chance to address the Security Council, a decision by the Albanian who holds the presidency of the council this month.
The Russian envoy said the video address of the Ukrainian president violates the traditions of the council and existing practices that say leaders who want to talk to the council should be present in the chamber.
“The UN Security Council should not become a platform for a remote public relations campaign by President Zelenskyi in order to get more weapons from participants in the NATO summit” from Wednesday in Madrid, Polyansky said.
He claimed there was no Russian attack on the Kremenchuk shopping center, and said Russian precision weapons hit hangars at the Kremenchuk road machinery plant with U.S. and European weapons and ammunition intended for troops. Ukrainians east of Donbass.
The mall was some distance away, but the detonation of ammunition “created a fire that then spread to the mall,” Polyansky said.
The Russian envoy told Western nations that by supplying weapons to Ukraine, they were lengthening the time when Ukrainian leaders “will sit at the negotiating table with a realistic position rather than slogans.”
“We launched a special military operation to stop the bombing of the Donbass by Ukraine and for the territory of that country, which has become anti-Russian at the request of several Western countries, as well as its nationalist leadership. , it ceases to pose a threat to Russia or the people of southern and southeastern Ukraine, “he said.” And until these goals are achieved, our operation will continue. “
British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward retorted that Russia “may try to claim that nothing is true and make outrageous claims of Ukraine’s provocations,” but the undeniable fact is that Russia invaded Ukraine.
“There’s an aggressor here,” he said. “The evidence will bring them up to date and there will be responsibility for these crimes.”
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun, a close ally of Russia, called the conflict a “geopolitical crisis” with multifaceted contagion effects and urged the international community to work together to create the conditions for Russian-Ukrainian peace talks. hostilities end soon. .
“Attempts to turn the world economy into a weapon and coerce other countries to take sides will artificially divide the international community and make the world even less secure,” Zhang warned. “Delaying and obstructing diplomatic negotiations for geopolitical purposes will only fuel the fire to intensify confrontation and escalate conflicts. Inevitably, they will end up hurting themselves.”
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills, like many other Western ambassadors, accused Russia of destroying the mall, saying the attack “fits into a cruel pattern, one in which the Russian military kills civilians and destroys civilian infrastructure. in Ukraine “.
He stressed that there is numerous publicly available evidence “that Russia, and only Russia” are responsible for this and other attacks.