Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky addressed the UN Security Council this afternoon (Tuesday), for the first time since the Russian invasion of his country, amid global shock at images of atrocities from the suburbs of Kyiv, particularly from the city of Bocha – images of a massacre by Russian forces Zalansky accused Russia of committing every possible crime in its war against his country, crimes he said were the most serious since World War II, and argued that Moscow wanted the Ukrainians to become “silent slaves.”
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Zalansky and his men are now calling for the aggravation of sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow, as punishment for the massacre that has now been exposed. The EU was quick to respond to these calls, and shortly before Zalanski’s speech unveiled a proposal to ban the import of coal from Russia, but not the import of oil and gas, as well as a proposal to ban Russian ships from anchoring in EU ports.
In a speech he made in a remote video broadcast, Zalansky mentioned his visit to Bocha yesterday, a visit that was recorded with a look of horror on his face: “Yesterday I visited our city of Bocha, recently liberated by Russian forces, not far from Kiev. “The Russian army deliberately sought to kill anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their homes because they were trying to call someone alive, they killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn bodies.” He further claimed that women had been raped and murdered in front of their children, and that their tongues had been torn off.
Zalansky argued that Russia is acting like colonialists in times past: “They need our wealth, our people,” he said. He reiterated the Ukrainian accusations that Russia had deported masses of Ukrainians – he said hundreds of thousands – to move into Russian territory: “They have abducted more than 2,000 children. They continue to do so. Russia wants to turn the Ukrainians into silent slaves,” he claimed. It should be noted that Moscow, on the other hand, claims that these are refugees that it is hosting in its territory, although in interviews some of these gave to the Western media, they said that they were indeed forced to evacuate to Russian territory. Zalanski further accused: “The Russian army is openly looting cities and villages it is occupying. This is why it is called looting. They steal everything from jewelry to earrings. Gold earrings have been torn off, covered in blood.”
The Ukrainian president said the international community was required to ensure that Russia would be held accountable for its actions in Ukraine, and called for Russia’s removal from the Security Council, a move that is unlikely to happen, as Moscow has a veto. He also called for war crimes and officers in the Russian army to be prosecuted for war crimes, as well as those who gave them the “criminal orders,” as he put it. He called for them to be tried before a special tribunal, as in the Nuremberg trials in which senior members of the Nazi regime were prosecuted after World War II. In his remarks, Zalansky also mentioned the trial held in Israel for Adolf Eichmann: “I would like to remind the Russian delegation (UN) that Ribbentrop did not flee from justice after the war … nor did Eichmann,” he said, referring to Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi regime’s foreign minister. Nuremberg and executed.
Zalansky, who was invited to address the Security Council by its interim president, Britain, criticized the fact that she was in fact paralyzed – and could not even send a statement condemning Russia’s actions, as Moscow had a veto. According to Zalansky, if the Security Council can not carry out its mission to protect world peace and find a way to stop Russia’s actions in Ukraine, it must disperse itself – as this will prove that “there is nothing you can do but talk.”
The speech was made against the background of the shock from the massacre that seems to have taken place in Bocha and other settlements in the suburbs of Kyiv, atrocities that were discovered only after the withdrawal of Russian forces from there around March 30. After their retreat, horrific sights were discovered in Bocha: the bodies of about 300 civilians were found in it – some scattered in the streets with their hands or feet tied, and others buried in makeshift mass graves. Signs were found on the bodies of some of those killed on the streets of Bocha that they had been shot at close range. According to the authorities in Kiev, so far Mubuka and other towns in the capital area from which the Russians withdrew 410 bodies of civilians have been evacuated.
Earlier, in his regular nightly speech, Zlanski warned that Bocha was just one massacre, and that more atrocities were expected in cities and towns liberated from the Russians that had not yet been scanned, especially in Borodynka, a suburb of Kyiv about 25 kilometers west of Bocha. Zalansky also spoke at a press conference this morning, saying that in light of the massacre in Bocha, negotiations with Russia would be more difficult. He added that even if the war ends soon, Russia could attack Ukraine again in two years, and to prevent this his country must receive guarantees from the world. He declared that post-war Ukraine would become a kind of “great Israel”, in his words, a country that in the next ten years would give top priority to security matters.
Russia, it should be emphasized, denies that it is responsible for the atrocities in Bocha and claims that the images of the bodies in the town are staged. Just yesterday, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nevenzia, claimed that it was Ukrainian nationalists who carried out the killings in the town and that while it was under Russian military control, “no one suffered violence.” The mayor of Bocha described the Russian withdrawal as a “victory for the Ukrainian army” and did not mention any mass killings, bodies or mass graves. Bodies are seen in the streets.
But satellite footage revealed tonight, showing the bodies of the murdered lying in the streets as early as the middle of last month – while the town was under Russian occupation – refutes Russian claims. The photographs of the Maxar satellite company and tests conducted by the New York Times show that the killing of civilians whose bodies were found on the streets in recent days occurred as early as the middle of last month, and that many of these civilians were killed more than three weeks ago.
The satellite images document what took place on Jablonska Street, where many of the sights that terrified the world this week were documented. In a video taken there on April 1, after the Russians withdrew, a variety of bodies were documented scattered on the street, and now it turns out that at least 11 of these bodies are already lying there on a satellite photo from March 11: Jablonska when the Ukrainians took over. The new satellite images also match another video from Jablonska Street, which shows three more bodies, one lying next to a bicycle and the other next to a car. The new photos show the abandoned cars and her body next to one of them suddenly appearing between March 20 and March 21, also during the occupation of the town by the Russians.
In the afternoon, another document was published from the same street in Boca, Jablonska Street, in which it was alleged that Russian forces were seen firing at a cyclist. The documentation, which according to the investigative organization Bellingcat was photographed hovering, shows a convoy of Russian armored forces on one of the streets of Bocha, and another armored vehicle standing nearby but on another street, opening fire in the direction of the same cyclist, when it reaches the street corner where it is armored. According to Bellingcat it is not entirely clear when exactly the video was filmed, but it was filmed before March 11, as then a satellite image documented damage to a house located just behind where the cyclist was at the time of the shooting. According to the report, at the very same place was documented from the ground, after the withdrawal of the Russian forces, the same body lying next to a bicycle.
In the shadow of the atrocities in Bocha, pressure is mounting, especially in Europe, to intensify sanctions on Russia. This pressure was met in the afternoon by European Commission President Ursula von der Lane, who announced a proposal to impose sanctions on the Russian energy sector for the first time, a move the EU has so far avoided due to Europe’s much dependence on Russian energy products, mainly gas but less oil and coal. . The new proposal will ban the import of coal from Russia, which imports into the EU countries about 30% of all the coal they consume. Coal consumption in Europe has declined over the years as part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to von der Lane, Russia earns 4 billion euros a year from coal exports to Europe.
Von der Lane said that at the same time the EU had begun work on drafting sanctions in the oil sector as well, but did not mention sanctions on Russian gas, on which the European continent is much more dependent. In addition, the European Commission proposes to ban the entry of Russian ships into the ports of EU countries, and to ban the import of additional products from Russia, including timber, cement, liquor and seafood. Sanctions will be imposed on other entities and banks in Russia, and it will be banned from importing a variety of products worth an annual value of about 10 billion euros – including quantum computers and technologies in the field of transportation and semiconductors.