Throw Russia out of UN Security Council: Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the UN of allowing Russia “the right to sow death” because it holds a Security Council veto.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the UN of allowing Russia “the right to sow death” because it holds a Security Council veto.

In a powerful speech to the UN via video Mr Zelensky demanded that Russia be expelled from the Security Council or else have the UN dissolve its own organisation so that Russia can no longer have such power.

As one of five permanent members, Russia has the ability to veto any criticism of the Kremlin, and has done so regularly, including stopping a UN investigation into the downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, which killed 38 Australians.

Mr Zelensky told the UN that Russia’s security veto “undermines the whole architecture of global security”, adding that it “allows them to go unpunished so they are destroying everything that they can”.

“It is obvious that the key institution of the world which must ensure the coercion of any aggressor to peace simply cannot work effectively,” he said.

Mr Zelensky detailed how victims in Bucha, just outside of the capital Kyiv were shot in the back of their heads, while others were thrown into wells.

He has demanded that the military commanders face immediate justice.

Mr Zelensky wants an international tribunal to be established and modelled on the Nuremberg trial of the Nazis following World War II.

He said Russia wanted to turn Ukraine into “silent slaves” and said Russian soldiers had already deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia, including abducting more than 2000 children and engaging in widespread looting, including pulling out gold earrings covered in blood.

“Russia’s leadership feels like colonisers in ancient times, they need our wealth, our people,’’ he said.

Further “terrible war crimes” had been committed in Ukraine.

“Bucha is only one of many, of what occupiers have been doing on our land for 41 days,” Mr Zelensky said.

“Now the world can see what Russian military did in Bucha, but the world has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country.”

The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, speaks to the Security Council after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the council. Picture: Getty Images

The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, repeated the earlier claims of Russian officials that the images from Bucha were fake and staged.

This came as authorities in Bucha uncovered even more evidence of torture chambers, one in the basement of a children’s summer camp, and locals who had been tortured before being murdered.

Opposition parliamentarian Kira Rudyk told UK Sky News that four days since the liberation of Bucha, Ukrainians were continuing to uncover more victims of the war.

“It is day four of the liberation of Bucha, and we are finding more and more bodies in basements, additional torture rooms and more tortured bodies and victims of the war,” she said on Tuesday.

“What’s happening in the eastern part of country and Mariupol is sure to be something we can’t handle … We know in Mariupol they are eating pigeons and dogs because there are no supplies.’’