Russian troops pulled out the tongues of civilians in Ukraine, its president told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Volodymyr Zelensky alleged horrifying details of war crimes by Vladimir Putin’s troops after he visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, liberated from Russian hands on Saturday.
He told diplomats Russia’s men had tortured civilians, crushed some to death in their tanks “for pleasure,” raped women in front of their children, and pulled out victims’ tongues “because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them”.
Harrowing images published over the weekend showed tied bodies shot at close range in the town while a mass grave filled with corpses was also uncovered by Ukrainian forces.
Graphic footage from Bucha and other major areas of Ukraine where Russia is accused of war crimes was shown to diplomats by Ukraine’s delegation.
Among the corpses captured in the footage were children.
Mr Zelensky said the scenes from Bucha showed there “not a single crime that they [Russian forces] would not commit”.
“Today, as a result of Russia’s actions in our country, in Ukraine the most terrible war crimes of all times, that we’ve seen since the end of World War Two, have been committed,” he told delegates.
“Russian troops are deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities to ashes with artillery and air strikes, they are deliberately blocking cities, creating mass starvation.
“They deliberately shoot columns of civilians on the road trying to escape from the hostilities.
“They even deliberately blow up shelters where civilians hide from air strikes. They are deliberately creating conditions in the temporarily occupied territories so that as many civilians as possible are killed there.”
The Ukrainian leader has warned more details could yet emerge of war crimes in other areas of the country.
Ukrainian authorities say they have re-established control of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions after Moscow pledged to significantly reduce its military operation and focus on the Donbas region.
Russia has claimed, without evidence, that photos in Bucha were staged by Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said it will present “empirical evidence” that its forces are not behind the killings in the town to the Security Council, despite mounting evidence of Russian committed atrocities.
But satellite images analysed by the New York Times debunked Moscow’s claim that Russian troops were not involved in some of the atrocities.
The newspaper matched a photo showing up to 11 dead bodies from March 11 – when the town was under Russian occupation - with footage shot by a local resident on April 2.
It means the corpses may have been there for weeks.
