Showing UNSC Violence Against Civilians Video, President Zelensky: Russia Wants To Change Ukraine

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the invading Russian troops responsible for committing the most horrific war crimes since the Second World War, in a virtual address to the UN Security Council.

President Zelensky showed short videos of burnt, bloodied, and mutilated bodies, including children, in Irpin, Dymerka, Mariupol, and Bucha, where Ukraine accused Russian troops of killing hundreds of civilians.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia later told the Security Council that Russian forces were not targeting civilians, dismissing allegations of abuse as lies. He said that while Bucha was under Russian control, "not a single civilian has suffered as a result of any violence."

President Zelensky questioned the value of the 15-member UN Security Council, which was unable to take any action over Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine because Moscow has veto power, along with fellow permanent councilors the United States, France, Britain, and China.

"We are dealing with a country that changed its veto in the UN Security Council to the right to (cause) death," Zelenskiy said in a live video address from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, urging reforms of the world body.

"Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a silent slave," he said.

Russia says it is carrying out special military operations aimed at destroying Ukraine's military infrastructure and destroying it, denying it attacked civilians. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Western countries say Moscow invaded without provocation.

Russia's counterpart China, which has abstained from most UN votes since the war began, is "deeply disturbed" by images of civilian deaths in Bucha, China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said, calling for verification of what happened.

India, which relies heavily on Russia for military hardware and has also abstained from UN action, condemned the Bucha killings and called for an independent investigation.

"We are not shooting at civilian targets in order to save as many civilians as possible. This is why we are not advancing as fast as expected," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia

Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said responsible world powers and global leaders need "support, and counter Russia's dangerous and unwarranted threat to Ukraine and the world."

"Nothing can be a shield for Russian aggression," he stressed as Washington pushed to suspend Russia from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council.

The 193-member UN General Assembly in New York is likely to vote on a move to suspend Russia on Thursday, diplomats said. A two-thirds majority of the electorate in attendance is required.

"I hope our colleagues from the United Nations will not allow themselves to be manipulated and toyed with Washington," Nebenzia said of the matter.

The United Nations says about 11 million Ukrainians, more than a quarter of the population, have fled their homes. Meanwhile, more than 4 million people have left Ukraine.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said at least 1,430 civilians had been killed, including more than 121 children.

"We know this is likely an underestimation," he said.

Griffiths said "we still have a long way to go" after what he described as a 'frank' meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday as a move towards a ceasefire. He hopes to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday to meet Ukrainian officials.

Separately, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said UN human rights monitors were trying to verify allegations of sexual assault by Russian forces.

"This includes gang rape and rape in front of children," he said.

"There have also been claims of sexual assault by Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias."

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges to the international order, "because of its nature, intensity, and consequences."