On the 41st day of war, Volodymyr Zelensky continued his speeches to Western parliaments. In front of the government and the Spanish deputies, he evoked the Guernica massacre to describe the situation in the town of Boutcha, not far from kyiv, where dozens of corpses were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
“It’s April 2022 but it feels like April 1937, when the world learned about what was happening in one of your towns, Guernica,” he said. Guernica, a city in the Spanish Basque Country, was bombed by Nazi aircraft in support of Franco’s troops during the Spanish Civil War. The massacre was later immortalized by painter Pablo Picasso in one of the world’s most famous canvases, which became a universal anti-war plea.
Zelensky urges the UN to act
Shortly before, the Ukrainian president spoke to the UN. “Now we need decisions from the Security Council for peace in Ukraine. If you don’t know how to take this decision, you can do two things. Either exclude Russia as an aggressor and the cause of the war so that it doesn’t block decisions about its own aggression. Then do whatever we can to achieve peace. Or the other option is to show that we can reform or change (…). If there is no alternative, the next option would be to disband you outright,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Following this solemn speech broadcast by video in the room of the Security Council, he broadcast very raw images of people killed in his country, whose violence provoked an indignant reaction from the President-in-Office. For the former comedian turned warlord, the violence in Boutcha is comparable to the violence carried out “by terrorists like Daesh”. Except that it is committed “by a member of the United Nations Security Council”.
His fellow citizens, he continued, “were killed in their apartments, in their houses with grenades; civilians were run over by tanks while they were in their cars in the middle of the road, just to pleasure.” Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced the “colonization” of Russia. “They need our wealth, our people. Russia has already sent hundreds of thousands of our citizens back to their country. They have kidnapped more than 2,000 children. Russia wants to make Ukrainians silent slaves,” he said. he added.
600,000 people “evacuated” to Russia
Russia has evacuated “600,000 people” from Ukraine. These did not leave “under duress or kidnapped” as the West says, said Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia. “We did not come to Ukraine to conquer territories,” he also declared, again contesting the accusations of atrocities targeting the Russian army and responding to the intervention of the Ukrainian president.
Russia strengthens towards the Donbass
Russia is strengthening itself to “take control of the whole of Donbass”, in eastern Ukraine, and achieve “a land bridge with Crimea”, annexed by Moscow in 2014, said Tuesday the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. “Russian troops have left the Kyiv region and northern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is moving a large number of troops to the east in Russia. They will rearm, receive reinforcements in numbers, because they have suffered a lot of losses, and resupply to launch a new highly concentrated offensive in the Donbass region,” he said.
Cluster munitions
The UN “has received credible allegations that Russian forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas”. And this, “at least 24 times” since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, at the end of February, affirmed Rosemary DiCarlo, the under-secretary general of the UN for political Affairs. “Allegations that Ukrainian forces used such weapons are also under investigation,” she added.
Civilians “deliberately” targeted in Boutcha, “unbearable” situation in Mariupol
The images coming out of Boutcha “point to civilians deliberately targeted and killed directly”, said Elizabeth Throssell, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “This evidence is very disturbing,” she said. Volodymyr Zelensky went there on Sunday.
“What we saw in Boutcha is not the isolated act of a rogue unit. It is a deliberate campaign to kill, torture, rape, commit atrocities,” said Antony Blinken, the chief of American diplomacy. “It strengthens our resolve and the resolve of countries around the world to ensure that somehow, one day or another, those who committed these acts are held accountable.”
Another city at the center of the horror: Mariupol, located in the south-east of the country, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and besieged for long weeks by the Russian army. Mariupol has “exceeded the stage of a humanitarian disaster”, the mayor of the city told AFP. He calls the situation of the 120,000 or so inhabitants still there “unlivable”.
Nearly 200 Russian diplomats expelled
After France and Germany yesterday, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Slovenia have in turn expelled Russian diplomats en masse. Nearly 200 were in two days, illustrating a further deterioration in relations with Moscow. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, for his part announced that he had decided to declare “persona non grata” several members of the Russian representation to the EU, because of “activities contrary” to their status as diplomats. He did not, however, specify the number or the date of their expulsion.
The European Commission has proposed to the Twenty-Seven to toughen the sanctions against Moscow. In particular by stopping their purchases of Russian coal, which represent 45% of EU imports, and by closing European ports to Russian or Russian-operated ships. Brussels’ proposals are to be discussed tomorrow by representatives of member countries before a meeting next Monday of EU foreign ministers. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the “pressure” exerted against Gazprom in Europe, stressing that nationalizing Russian assets was “a double-edged sword”.