Very recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke up about the atrocities committed by the Russian military in Ukraine via pre-recorded video delivered to the UN General Assembly in New York. Per the BBC, he called for the creation of a special war tribunal to serve “just punishment” to the guilty. Some 101 countries voted to allow him to speak, while seven countries, including Russia, voted against it.
In his speech, Zelenskyy not only detailed documented war crimes and advocated for greater military support for Ukraine, but called for united, internationally-sanctioned punishments for Russia on the world stage, including a revocation of Russia’s permanent place on the UN’s Security Council. Zelenskyy even highlighted, specifically, the video-recorded castration of a Ukrainian man by the Russian military. He also condemned Russian plans to hold votes in occupied portions of his country to ask whether or not those living there want to join Russia (detailed on the BBC). The move has been “widely condemned as a sham.”
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Zelenskyy’s appeal to the UN coincides with the discovery of the mass graves and POW camps in the reclaimed region surrounding the Ukrainian city of Izyum. It also coincides with the largest prisoner exchange since the war began. Ukraine received 215 soldiers back, including 108 members of the Azov battalion, who resisted the Russian advance in Mariupol. Russia also released 10 non-Ukrainians, including five British nationals and two Americans, per the BBC. Russia received 55 soldiers back.
