War in Ukraine | Zelensky will address the UN Security Council

(Boutcha) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, after the discovery of massacres attributed to Russian forces near Kyiv, and in particular in Boutcha where he went on Monday.

The leader, who denounced “war crimes” and “genocide” after the update of dozens of corpses wearing civilian clothes in Boutcha and other localities near the Ukrainian capital, will intervene before the Security Council for the first time since the invasion of his country by Russia, indicated the United Kingdom which currently chairs this body of the United Nations.

In a video broadcast overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky confirmed this intervention, which we do not know if it will take place live or delayed. “The time will come when every Russian will learn the whole truth about who among their compatriots killed. Who gave the orders, ”he said in this video, calling for tougher sanctions against Moscow and more arms to be delivered to his country.

Earlier Monday, he had gone to Boutcha where dozens of corpses were found in this small town located about thirty kilometers northwest of Kyiv, after the withdrawal of Russian forces.

“You are here and you can see what happened. We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured, have had their limbs torn, women have been raped and children killed,” he said at an impromptu press briefing, after walking a few meters in a downtown street, littered with the shredded carcasses of Russian personnel carriers and armored vehicles, amid destroyed houses.

According to the Ukrainian president, 300 people, “only in Boutcha, were killed and tortured”.

Russia denied any responsibility, assuring Monday that it would present “documents” showing, according to it, the “true nature” of the events that took place in Boutcha.

Zelensky visited Boutcha on Monday

Looking grave, wearing a khaki coat and camouflage-colored bulletproof vest, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky spent half an hour on Monday in Boutcha, near Kyiv, where he accused Russian forces of ” war crimes” which will be “recognized as genocide”.

His trip – the first out of Kyiv since the Russian invasion – had not been announced, although it was rumored in the morning that he might come.

Shortly before his arrival, several dozen large 4X4s tumbled onto the central crossroads of the city, from which armed soldiers descended to secure the area.

About forty journalists were already in the city, transported from Kyiv in a convoy of several minibuses, flanked by police cars, as part of a visit organized by the authorities.

The president arrived in the middle of the day, surrounded by a close guard of armed soldiers.

From then on, communications with the outside world became impossible, no telephone network was accessible.

Sometimes with his hands in his pockets, Volodymyr Zelensky walked a few meters down a downtown street, strewn with the shredded carcasses of Russian armored personnel carriers and vehicles, for several hundred meters, in the middle of destroyed houses.

Standing, protected by armed soldiers, he then made a quick press point in this street to denounce “war crimes” committed in Boutcha, after the discovery in the city of a large number of corpses wearing civilian clothes.

“You are here and you can see what happened. We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured, had limbs torn, women raped and children killed,” he added.

After the press briefing, Mr. Zelensky entered the small garden of an undestroyed house, still on the same street, to talk for 10 minutes with an elderly couple, away from view and cameras. this time.

He then left the city in a convoy, while the press was invited to visit the cellar of a school in which lay the bodies of five men wearing civilian clothes, at least three of whom had their hands tied behind their backs with strips of white fabric.

The bodies were removed one by one from the cellar and placed in black plastic body bags, before being taken away in a van.

Boutcha, a town of about 37,000 inhabitants (before the war) 30 km from the capital, has been, along with its neighbor Irpin, the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, February 24.

The locality was occupied by the Russian army from February 27, remaining inaccessible for more than a month. Shelling there ceased on Thursday and Ukrainian forces were only able to fully penetrate it a few days ago.

AFP saw the bodies of at least 22 people in civilian clothes in the streets there on Saturday. One of them was lying near a bicycle and another had shopping bags next to her. A corpse had its hands tied behind its back.

The cause of their death could not immediately be determined, but two people had large head wounds.

According to the city’s mayor, Anatoly Fedorouk, 280 people had to be buried in “mass graves” in Boutcha.