Zelensky demands accountability after ‘terrible war crimes’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the U.N. Security Council to seek “full accountability” for the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine, which he described as the “most terrible war crimes” since World War II. In a video address, he accused Russia of mass atrocities across the country, including killing unarmed civilians and crushing people with tanks.

“This undermines the whole architecture of global security,” Zelensky said. “They are destroying everything.”

Prior to those remarks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the alleged actions in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha were a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier the E.U. will impose an import ban on coal worth more than 4 billion dollars per year as part of new sanctions against Moscow in response to the mounting evidence of atrocities in the city northwest of the Ukrainian capital, saying the violence “can not and will not be left unanswered.” The new measures will need approval from all 27 member states.