KYIV — Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky will on Tuesday address the UN Security Council, seeking tougher
measures against Moscow over alleged killings of civilians, as his country
braces for further Russian bombardments in the east and south.
اضافة اعلان
The speech, Zelensky’s first to the body since
Russia’s invasion, comes after he made an emotional trip to Bucha, where dozens
of bodies were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
US President Joe Biden has called for a “war crimes
trial” over the alleged atrocities and Western officials have vowed new
economic sanctions this week in response to the harrowing discoveries in Bucha
and other towns near Kyiv.
Zelensky has denounced “war crimes” and attempted
“genocide” while appealing for new sanctions, and more Western defense aid,
saying they could have helped save innocent lives.
It was not clear if his speech to the
UN Security Council, to be delivered on the 41st day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would
be pre-recorded or live.
Europe’s worst conflict in decades has killed as
many as 20,000 people, according to Ukrainian estimates. It has seen more than
4.2 million flee the country and displaced another 6.5 million internally.
“The sanctions response to
Russia’s massacre of
civilians must finally be powerful,” Zelensky said in a Telegram video late
Monday after touring the devastated streets of Bucha.
“Did hundreds of our people have to die in agony for
some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the
most severe pressure?” he asked.
Moscow has denied responsibility and suggested that
the images are fake or that the deaths occurred after Russian forces pulled out
of the area.
But newly released satellite photographs taken by
Maxar Technologies in mid-March, before the Russian withdrawal, showed what
appeared to be bodies in some of the same places they were later found by
Ukrainian troops and seen by journalists.
Denmark, Italy and Spain on Tuesday became the
latest European nations to expel dozens of Russian “intelligence officers”
registered as diplomats, with more than 150 sent home in 48 hours.
The Kremlin called the mass expulsions a
“short-sighted move” that would complicate negotiations aimed at finding a
solution to the conflict.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will
travel to Kyiv this week alongside EU foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell, her
spokesman said, after the bloc offered assistance in documenting potential
atrocities against unarmed residents.
French prosecutors in
Paris said they had opened
three more probes into suspected war crimes committed against French citizens
in Ukraine.
NATO warns of Donbas push
Many in Ukraine are bracing
for further Russian bombardments especially in the east and south, and air raid
sirens rang out overnight across much of the country.
“In the coming weeks, we expect a further Russian
push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and
to create a land bridge to occupied Crimea,”
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
Biden told reporters Monday that there should be “a
war crimes trial” for
Russian President Vladimir Putin, vowing that Washington
would join the EU in announcing new sanctions this week.
The US Treasury announced Tuesday that Russia will
no longer be able to pay its foreign debt with dollars held in American banks,
further squeezing its financial system.
European sanctions will “include oil and coal,”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after talks with his German counterpart
in Berlin.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has
warned that the “next phase” of Russia’s invasion, focusing on expanding
territories it holds in the east and south, “could be measured in months or
longer.”
The full nature of the killings in Bucha and other
areas from which Russian troops have withdrawn is still being pieced together.
Ukrainian officials say over 400 civilian bodies
have been recovered from the wider
Kyiv region, many of whom have been buried
in mass graves.
But Zelensky has warned that the deaths in Bucha
could be only the tip of the iceberg, saying he had information that even more
people had been killed in places like nearby Borodianka.
AFP reporters who briefly visited the area saw no
bodies in the streets, but locals reported many deaths. The scale of
devastation in the town saw buildings flayed open.
“I know five civilians were killed,” said
58-year-old Rafik Azimov. “But we don’t know how many more are left in the
basements of the ruined buildings after the bombardments.”
“I buried six people,” another resident, Volodymyr
Nahornyi, said. “More people are under the ruins.”
Ukraine has
warned that Moscow is preparing a “full-scale” attack in the country’s east and
regional officials urged civilians to evacuate Lugansk fearing a major Russian
attack.
Even where troops have withdrawn, fears remain, with
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko telling residents to not yet return, citing the
danger of continued shelling and the danger of unexploded munitions.
On Monday, officials in Mykolaiv, on the Black Sea
not far from
Odessa, said cluster bombs were used against the city in strikes
that killed 10 civilians and wounded 46.
A 2008 UN convention bans the production and use of
cluster bombs, which kill indiscriminately, but it has not been signed by
Russia or Ukraine.
Elsewhere in the south, concerns remain for
civilians trapped in the city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by
Russian forces for over a month, and where authorities say at least 5,000
people have been killed.
The Red Cross said Tuesday that Russian forces had released
a team sent to help evacuate Mariupol residents that was detained en route
Monday.
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