Addressing the Security Council on Tuesday, Ukraine's President told Council Members he was speaking on behalf of the civilians who died in the six-weeks war by asking them to remove the Russian Federation from the organization, find a way for peace or “dissolve yourself altogether.” Zelenskyy said he was speaking for those who were thrown into wells, killed in their houses, crushed while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, who had their limbs cut of, or were raped in front of their children. “So where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee?,” he asked. “It's not there. Although there is a Security Council, where is that peace, where are those guarantees that the United Nations needs to guarantee? It is obvious that the key institution of the world which must ensure the coercion of any aggression to peace simply cannot work effectively.” Previewing the Russian Federation defense, the chief of State said the country’s representatives would “blame everyone to justify their own actions.” “They will say that there are various versions and it is impossible to establish which one of those versions is true. They will even say that the bodies were thrown away and all the videos are staged. But it is 2022 now, we have conclusive evidence,” he said. The Ukrainian president asked for “full and transparent investigations”, maximum access for journalists, maximum cooperation with international institutions, and the involvement of the International Criminal Court. “We want complete truth and full accountability. I'm sure that every Member State of the UN is interested in this. For what? In order to punish once and for and for all those who consider themselves privilege and believe that they can get away with anything, so that all the other war criminals in the world know how they will be punished,” he argued. In his remarks, the United Nations Secretary-General said the war in Ukraine “is one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace architecture, founded on the United Nations Charter.” Noting that the Council is charged with maintaining peace, the UN chief said he deeply regrets the divisions that have prevented the organ from acting not only on Ukraine, but on other threats to peace and security around the world. “I urge the Council to do everything in its power to end the war and to mitigate its impact, both on the suffering people of Ukraine, and on vulnerable people and developing countries around the world,” Guterres concluded. Rosemary DiCarlo, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, also argued that “the many credible allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, from the areas recently retaken from Russian forces, must not go unanswered.” She provided an update on the number of victims of the conflict. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 injured between 24 February and 4 April 2022. OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher. As of 30 March, OHCHR has documented the arbitrary detention and possible enforced disappearance of 22 journalists and civil society members in Kyiv, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. 24 local officials have also been detained in regions under Russian control, 13 of whom have been subsequently released. Also as of 30 March, OHCHR has recorded seven journalists and media workers killed since hostilities began. Another 15 have come under armed attack, nine of whom were injured. In terms of humanitarian consequences, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said that homes and civilian infrastructure - bridges, hospitals, schools – have been damaged and destroyed. More than 11 million people have now been forced to flee their homes, of whom more than 4.2 million are now refugees in generous neighboring countries. In total, more than a quarter of Ukraine’s population has fled. “And, unfortunately, these figures will continue to rise, until we can find a pause and some peace,” he said. Today, the Humanitarian chief was briefing the Council having just returned from Moscow, where he had “long and frank” exchanges with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov and his Deputy, Sergei Vershinin, and separately with the Deputy Minister of Defence. “My counterparts in Moscow received these suggestions and assured me of their intent to carefully study those ideas, which I left with them, and we agreed to remain in close contact. I came away from these meetings believing that we have a long road ahead of us, but it must be travelled, and, Madam President, we will travel it,” Griffiths recounted.

• published: 05 Apr 2022
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