and for organizing this vital discussion on ukraine today. i also want to thank the secretary general for his remarks and the other briefers. and i'd like to extend a warm welcome to president zalinski. i was so moved by the address he made recently to our congress. and we are truly honored by his presence here under the circumstances that he and ukraine faced today. madam president, last night i returned from a trip to moldova and romania. i saw with my own eyes, the refugee crisis caused by rushes unconscionable war. i spoke to refugees who indicated to me their desires, to return to their home. and we've all seen the images on t. v of the bombed out buildings. but what we have not seen is that

behind those destroyed buildings are destroyed lives and destroyed families. i met with women and children who had fled ukraine, who stuffed their lives into backpacks and left the only home they had ever known. and these were sobering conversations. one young woman i spoke to came with her 6 year old brother who had autism and is struggling with cancer. their single mother helped them escape to save their lives, but rushes. busy war has interrupted the care, her brother desperately needs another woman. i spoke to fled with her 8 euro from odessa. the father who they had left behind, told them there was shelling right next to their apartment that very night. and

they. busy very well could have died, had they not laugh. a 3rd woman i met told me that she used to love to travel, but never expected. her next trip would be to flee her life, flee for her life. when i asked her where she was from, she started to say and then she stopped with tears in her eyes and said, i'm sorry. i don't know how to say it, whether i live in cave or whether i used to live in cave. she was realizing in the moment, just how dramatically her life had changed because of this senseless war. these are 3 stories of more than 10000000 people. 6000000 internally displaced 4000000 who've left ukraine altogether. 4000000 people who have relied on the big heartedness of countries like moldova romania, poland, slovakia,

hungry and others across the region in the world to welcome and support. all those leaving ukraine in search of safety. ukraine's neighbors are bearing the brunt of europe's most significant refugee crisis since world war 2. and i want these countries to know that they have a committed partner in the united states. and that is why the united states announced recently that we are prepared to provide more than $1000000000.00 us dollars in new funding toward humanitarian assistance for those affected by russia's war in ukraine and its severe impact around the world. and it is why we are welcoming up to a 100000 ukrainians and others fleeing rushes aggression to the united states. we will continue to assist humana, terry,

in efforts to help the people of ukraine and all those fleeing putin's violence. but as heart wrenching as the stories are that i heard in moldova and romania, there are some stories. we will never get to hear those of the people we saw in the images out of butcher we've all seen the grow, some photos, lifeless bodies lying in the streets, apparently summarily executed. their hands tied behind their backs. as we worked to independently confirm the events depicted in these images, i would remind this counsel that based on the currently available information, the united states has assessed that members of russia's forces have committed war crimes in ukraine. and even before seeing the images from boucher president,

zalinski along with others in the region were reporting that children were being abducted. and we heard him say that today also abducted our mayor's and doctors, religious leaders, journalists, and all who dare defy rushes aggression. some of them, according to credible reports, including by the mirror polls city council had been taken to so called filtration camps were russian forces are reportedly making tens of thousands of ukrainian citizens relocate to russia. reports indicate that russian federal security agents are confiscating passports. and i d 's taking away cell phones and separating families from one another. i do not need to spell out what these so called filtration camps are reminiscent of its chilling. and we

cannot look away every day we see more and more how little russia respects human nights. and that is why i announced yesterday that the united states and coordination with ukraine and many other un member states will seek russia's suspension from the un human rights council. given the growing mountain of evidence, russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose purpose. his very purpose is to promote respect for human rights. not only as, as the height of hypocrisy, it is dangerous. russia is using its membership on the human rights council as a platform for propaganda to suggest russia has a legitimate concern for human rights. in fact, we will hear some of that propaganda here today. i know and i will not dignify

these lies with a response. only to say that every lie we hear from the russian representative is more evidence that they do not belong on the human rights council. a 140 you and member states voted to condemn russia, ovitz unprovoked war, and the humanitarian crisis. it has lead unleashed upon the people of ukraine. here is my message to all of you. now is the time to match those words with action and show the world that we can work responsibly. and i share president solice is view that this moment requires responsible world powers and global leaders to show some backbone and stand up to russia's dangerous and unprovoked threat against ukraine and the world. the secretary general said that

confronting this threat is the security council's charge. it is, and it is also the responsibility of you and leaders and leaders around the world. every single member stayed with a voice in the ga. no one can be a shill for rushes, aggression. suspending russia from the human rights council is something we collectively have the power to do in the general assembly. our votes can make a real difference rushes participation on the human rights council hurts the counsels credibility. it undermines the entire un and it is just plain wrong. let us come together to do what is right and do right by the ukrainian people. let us take this step to help them to start

to rebuild their lives. and let us match the courage of president zalinski who we are so honored to have with us today. president zalinski. i want you to know that we stand with the people of ukraine as you face down this brutal attack on your sovereignty, on your democracy. and on your freedom. thank you. i thank the representative of the united states for her statement, and i give the floor to the representative of albania. thank you, madam president. of me. thank ambassadors. it's almost 10 minutes past 15. 100 hours gmc are watching al jazeera and are continuing coverage of the un security council meeting, taking place right now. as you can see over in new york, where we just heard from ukraine's president followed the mirrors, lensky,

he addressed the un security council for the 1st time, accusing russia of deliberately killing, torturing and raping civilians. russia insisting that its troops are not guilty of any crimes. we also were just hearing from the us ambassador to the united nations, where she said that the u. s. has assessed that russian forces have committed war crimes in ukraine and also agreeing with the landscape who is demanded accountability for what he calls russian crimes. we will move away from the speaker as for just a moment and bring in our correspondence for some analysis on what's taking place at the un right now we begin with kristen salumi, who's joining us from the un headquarters in new york christian just for anyone just joining and tell us what we've heard in the past couple of minutes or so. i think most noteworthy, it is 1st time that ukrainian president vladimir zalinski has addressed a you,

i'm security council and he gave a very passionate speech, appealing to the international community to help ukraine. he gave details of his visit to boucher. i just one of many examples ah, that he gave of alleged war crimes against ukrainians in russia. ah, he also attempted to put the conflict in international perspective and talking about the impact it's having on developing countries in terms of food availability in places like africa and asia. ah, he talked about the responsibility of the security council and the united nations to protect the rule of international law and actually went so far as calling for a global conference by the united in to see how to improve and finally achieve the goals of the united nations which is set up,

he pointed out to maintain international peace and security, he likened russia to colonizers and ukrainians to slave there. again, i think, appealing to a countries who are in the united nations as the united states and other countries have talked about taking action against russia at the un in the terms, in terms of taking them off the human rights council and so forth to show that they are increasingly isolated. so we are seeing a, from all the speakers in particular, a, a context of international law and violations of international law and allegations of violations of international law. and attempt to direct the response to russia and an astonished defense from asia as expected as well. it. o kristen, what do we believe can actually happen or can actually be achieved at the un

security council? because obviously russia stands with the veto power at the security council and mean, besides the symbolism of president zalinski speaking to the council, what can actually be done? at the end of the day, russia can block any action in the security council. this, i think, is why the united states, the united kingdom, which holds the presidency of the security council, are focused on the allegations of war crimes and kicking russia, author of the human rights council, the united states ambassador linda thomas greenfield said it's hypocrisy for russia to hold a seat on that council given what they say is proof of their war crimes in ukraine. she's insisted that they have evidence of that she referred to reports of

ukrainians being forced to relocate to russia. and she appealed fur directly to member states to use their vote in the general assembly, which is what it would take to remove russia from the human rights council. it would take 2 thirds of countries to vote in the general assembly to do that. and this is something that's controversial, it's only been done once in the past with libya, the united nations itself, some of its officials, have, i cautioned against going that route. they see it as undermining multilateral institutions in some ways. but the united states in the united kingdom haves are really been pushing on this point as a way to further isolate russia on the international stage. kristen as you speak to us, we're just looking at the these are not the live pictures that affect the latest pictures of when the u. s. ambassador to the you and was speaking melinda thomas greenfield . just talk us through what to expect sort of over the next few hours a little take place. well,

all members of the security council will get a chance to make comments. we heard briefly from russia at the beginning of the meeting, objecting to the fact that russia was denied a request for a meeting on monday on the situation in ukraine, specifically allegations of what was happening in boucher. so there was a very passionate, angry confrontation from russia's ambassador accusing the united kingdom of a root of not fulfilling security council duties and obligations. by holding this meeting, the united kingdom very calmly responded that they were within the 48 hours. that's traditional and there was an opportunity for them to be heard today and that there would be further opportunities in parallel. so a lot of bluster there, but we haven't heard russia respond specifically to the allegations that have been made by many you and speakers today. in terms of these evidence of growing growing

evidence of war crimes in the spill off knock off effect that this invasion in violation of national sovereignty is having on the ground. so we do expect to hear more from russia in this hour, as well as other countries on the council who will want to speak france, ireland, and others. i'm sure will i have something to say. we may hear from china as well, which has been more protective in the united nations of russia's rights, not willing to go as far as the united states and the united kingdom and some other countries. and criticizing china and criticizing russia while at the same time expressing concern about the humanitarian situation. so they have been in an uncomfortable position. it will be interesting to hear what they have to say today . yeah, and we're just hearing from a on our screens. we can see the representative from albania speaking at this very moment. krista will let you go for now. we'll check in with you a little later on. thank you so much show for that reporting from the united nations. so as kristen was just mentioning, ukraine's president of all others,

lensky did address the un security council, and that was for the 1st time. and he accused russia of deliberately killing, torturing and raping civilians. he says, these are the most terrible war crimes committed in ukraine since the 2nd world war is also calling for the security council to bring moscow to account. little grainy, we need decisions from the security council for peace in ukraine. if you don't know how to implement this, you can do 2 things. i do remove russia from the council, so it cannot block decisions about its own war. the other option is to reform the security council to work for peace. if there isn't an alternative, then we should disorder secret council altogether less i'll bring in iran con, he's drawn as from keith. so iran, when the president finished speaking, he did receive an ovation from members of the security council. talk us through how significant his speech was well as

a much mold, powerful, much more impassioned, vague space than we've heard him do before. if you remember, over the last 41 days he's been addressing various different governments. you just the u. s. congress, the british parliament, the latest one, wasn't romania. hazel's. i dressed the door for him in cattle. he's been pushing a message out, but yesterday he went to visit boucher. we were there also. he saw for himself what had happened and clearly that has had an impact on him. it was a very angry speech in many ways. let me just go through some of the highlights before the address of the idea of you and security council reform, which is the 1st time a world leader to the urine. un security council in my memory at least has been so blunt foot. he said he began with rush of her saying not a single crime. they wouldn't commit. they killed adults and children and women, they tried to burn the bodies. others was shot in the back of the head,

killed on the streets in the houses. others were course, were crushed by tanks. they killed people in front of their families. they are like da, she referred to to the islamic state, saying they killed many and they destroyed towns. you went on site, they've caused a global food farming. where is the security? you said that the security council council guarantees the council doesn't work effectively to well to seem boucher, but they haven't seen what's happened in other cities. now this was also backed up by the attorney general of ukraine who we interviewed yesterday as well. she said, look you, we can talk both austin l boucher at a pain. these towns in the north of keep but wait until we get into mario pole. we have dentist glance, and other parts of the dumbass. we will see much more of what we've seen in boucher on. those towns are bigger their actual cities. now you said the united nations is there to maintain peace, but russia violated article one. so what's the point of the other articles? he said, ah,

ross is deliberately killing people. each city he said will be the same as boucher and the russians will blame everyone and say it was staged. ah, but we will involve the icy. see the international criminal court. how will show the, the rest of the war criminals on the will that we will prosecute. the biggest criminal which he referred to as being russia. because we can punish them than all war criminals can be punished. that's going to be difficult for him to do because russia is a signatory to the international criminal court. he went on to say a force against away with this them. there's no international law any to act immediately. the security council needs to be reformed. nanette, talk about that, that will be a surprise to many people here. and ukraine actually talk to the attorney general here about investigations. and she was very much focused on domestically bizarre lensky seems to have up the ante here. he's actually talking about un security council reform to the actual security council itself. and that has to be noted

that's going to be a landmark criticism of the own security council and rochester, and just on the point of, well, what zalinski had to say. i mean, one more thing that he really did speak about is bringing justice immediately and he kept calling for accountability. that's absolutely right. and that's been echoed by the legal system here in ukraine. and now what he's calling for is international accountability. one special tribunals. he want something similar to what happened after the 2nd world war. and the nuremberg trials were people who were responsible for the crimes who gave the orders were actually punished. he's looking for something like that. now within the ukraine legal system itself. and people who are involved in the area, they say that if we call gay international justice, we will do it here at home. we will bring people to trial here in ukraine, even if we have to do it in absentia. even if we can't get russians to,

if we can't get russians. expedited here, now that's a big off, but they are now talking about just is not have to say once more president the lens . he did go to boucher yesterday. he did see some of the stuff that we've been we've so we saw that it bodies on the street. we saw houses destroyed you so whole streets obliterated. that must have had an impact on him because this speech is all about reform of the security council, about justice, about accountability, but about prosecuting, those who are responsible. all right, thank you so much. and ron khan is reporting for us from key eve let's not say to melinda harring, who is the deputy director of the razor center at the atlantic council. she's joining us vice guy from washington. d. c. welcome to al jazeera. so the current president is so far demanding accountability for what he calls russian crimes. what do you believe can actually come out of the un security council today? so honestly, the answer is not much,

but there is something that the ukrainians should be pushing on. so that today they should be pushing and asking, they should be demanding a monitor and mission within the human rights council that should go to boucher immediately. and it should note all the atrocities that we're seeing in the media to these images need to be documented. all of the abuse needs to be written down so to, to make the case for international tribunals and so that justice can be achieved. the u. s. is the chair of the u. n. human rights councils of this is something that is practical and implementable is something that we should do now. yeah, i mean, how likely is that you think that international tribunals will be set up to investigate specifically what happened in boucher i think there's a lot of outrage. i think people are shocked in this may motivate the west to actually do more. so in washington, there's a lot of reluctance descend, i've the higher end weapon systems. the white house is making. this distinction between asked lottery weapons and defensive weapons. and i think that that

a distinction that might make sense in law school is going to go away in the u. s. is going to finally start sending us some of these weapons systems that the ukrainians have been begging for. for a long time. on the justice side. i think it's too early to say, remember that, that russia is on the security council, and it's going to block every single attempts to bring justice to ukraine. i mean, on speaking of russia, russia says that this has fake and this is in fact stage. and we are waiting to hear from the russian ambassador to the un will crossover alive once he starts making his remarks to, to hear what more the, the officials of russia have to say. but what kind of evidence do think rush, i can actually provide a to show that it wasn't responsible, as it claims none. russia has no other evidence have your, your listeners and viewers go look at the new york times. the new york times did a brilliant investigation today, and it shows it proves using satellite images that the russians are the ones who killed at all, the innocent civilians in boucher,

the russians were there. and you can look at the before and after satellite photos, the russians are saying that these of atrocities occurred after they left it's nonsense. satellite images show it proves without any doubt the russian soldiers rate hilde. i did horrific things to innocent ukrainians in boucher and i agree with the literary zalinski all over the country and, and i think the world is going to be shocked when the international community can finally get into mario bold and see the abuse. see that the, the, the train of, of bodies and horrible things that have been left behind. what do you think will be the impact of what's happened on the grounds in ukraine? a so far and also, but you know, what's taking place right now with the un security council. what impact is all this going to have on any a prospect for peace talks going forward? there's no such thing as piece talks, blood in her potent is not interested in negotiating when he to stop fooling ourselves. look, it's good that they're talking. a zalinski said today this is going to make boucher

is going to make it very, very hard to negotiate. it's going to be very hard to trust i the russian side, but he will continue to talk to them. the peace talks are not serious right now because i, of putin who does not want to negotiate. he is angry and emotional. he has pulled back russian troops of the don boss to eastern ukraine, but his goals have not changed. his strategy has changed, but not his goals. so at this point, diplomacy is dead. and the u. s. in western governments need to keep sending as much defensive material, and this is planes. this is btr and as, as anti aircraft systems, ukraine as possible. and we also need to upper game on sanctions in titan, titan, titan. and hopefully the european union will do that as well. when you say his goals have not changed, what do you believe has goes to be goodness for goals when he went into ukraine on the 24th of february, he wants to destroy the western isaac drive in ukraine. he wants to humiliate the west. he wants to destroy the unity of nato,

and he's really failed on that one. it was unified and it's going to have more for our probably to new members. all right, my apologies. melinda harring. i'll have to just jump in there because we are going to hear from the russian ambassador to the you and speaking right now with the un security council. but thank you so much. melinda harding, him on. i thought i better sanmar that he ended up with another. yeah. let me know . yeah. oh gleaton with oh nobody them who they see that is not yet that much old on one device with me that i don't know. yeah. he's not going to get and you've got your movie. james's mom wasn't living here in michigan. and such communicators are published every single day by our ministry of defense. i simply would like to say that just out of mario bull toward the east without any participation by the ukrainian side, we have managed to save $123.00 and a half 1000 people. now over all,

since the beginning of this special military operation over $600000.00 people have been evacuated to russia, including over a $119000.00 children. and we're not talking about any kind of coercion or abduction as our western partners like to present this. but rather of the voluntary decision by these people is testified by many of videos that are accessible in social media. madam president, another topic of this meeting was declared today, which sher is practically not being disgusted either. so i'm going to leave that out. i simply would like to take advantage of the virtual presence here of the president of ukraine and would like to address him directly. now we can place our near conscience, sir,

as the un grounded accusations against the russian military, which are not confirmed by any ah, any eye witnesses. and we spoke about this in detail yesterday at our press conference. ladyman. alexander, it's, we all remember when in 2019 you were elected as the president, the ukraine. now, there were a lot of hope, sir, tied to your election because you are, ah, you oh, work. as a candid, dead da pledged piece and an end to the warren dunbar, sir, ah, including the russian speaking population which had pledged to protect so it seemed that we were on the verge of correcting the historical. and just as when, as a result of the my done a crew in 2014, no, ah, ukraine began to be transformed into a hateful anti ration that seemed to be on the verge of being turned on. that page

of being turned. how ever those hopes serve failed to be a man to materialize and now you scornfully car. they are the residents of don't ask and lugens go, people's risk public as a sub species, a repeating what your predecessor as stated, who in fact or threatened that during the residence of the don't ask. and lou ganske will write in their basements and you are calling on them to a returned to leave, to leave, and to russia. and now you've declared war against your native russian language. by introducing, in essence, a linguistic inquisition in a country where russian is the native language for a minimum of 40 percent of the population. and to day explosions and artillery rounds are, are exploding over the entire territory of ukraine and not only in the east where

they haven't ceased for the past 8 years. and they're exploding precisely because there was no other way of bringing peace to that done. but unfortunately, after you and your subordinates categorically refused to comply with the minsk agreements. at the same time my preparing already back in march to solve the problem of the dunbar. sir, my military means in the course of our special operations. we have found many secret orders testifying to this. we are told that it can be no, not caesar in ukraine, however, we know very well that not only are they there, but unfortunately they are running the show. and how can it be any other way when the national heroes of ukraine are nazi collaborators, mendera and you have ej, who are responsible not only for the holocaust but the killing of hundreds of thousands of peaceful poles, russians, ukrainians,

and jews. you simply prefer not to notice ukrainian nod caesar. ah, pretending that they're simply not there, but unfortunately they are there and they are very many of them. and among them, a lot of young people. how do we know that while they're not concealing it, they have tattoos made dead nazi tattoos. they decorate their their clothing with swastikas and other nazi symbols. they greet each they give nazi greetings and they're open about in the social media there. but they're particularly many of them in the national battalion such as i dar the right sector and the as of battalion. and it would be one thing. but they're also acting like nazis and they're killing like them. and they're not just killing good pro russian bresner prisoner soldiers in which they torture and glowed about it on the social media,

but they kill their own. you are neo nazis in radicals. there are. i have shown unrivalled cruelty against the civilians, which they use as human shields and a position for position heavy artillery next to residential buildings and multiple rocket launchers as well. to day. we've heard once again, a huge amount of lies about russian soldiers and military. we have hundreds, if not thousands of video testimonials of people who are ready to provide testimony about the cruelty of ukrainian nationals. i'll just read some of them here. these are cru histories. we need to hear them natalia, couldn't ever says the mayor of the town was one of the 1st to run away afterwards . the ukrainian authorities lied that russia was not letting people through humanitarian corridors. the national battalion of under threat of death kept women

and children and basements and it robbed civilians at checkpoints. a gram mother said that they as of the time, did not del hour to leave the basement. anyone trying to lee was shot at the as of checkpoint women and chill and girls were stripped naked and had their jewelry and money taken away, including their valentine. now nicholas numbers, seneca, ah, it says how ukrainian a soldiers kicked out a women with 2 children from a private home and then used it to la mortar rounds. and that women had 2 children . she was, they were kicked out by soldiers with blue arm bands. those are ukraine insignia is in sydney's of ukrainian army, marine of a seal, even a, a total testify that she was tortured in

a basement by c crane insecurity services. they tied me to a sewer pipe. when i found out i was russian, they beat me used electric, ker, and rape me, and they threatened to rate my young daughter shop of oliver olga. you're given a. we left mario bow from mung magazine. on the 25th of march, a firing positions of the craner, an army were positioned between residential homes and in the courtyard of a school. these civilians is cover in the neighborhood around the drama theater. at a gradient tank drove around firing indiscriminately, including targeting residential buildings and the territory, the 6968th, and the 5th school tanks were station i saw this with my own eyes madame support. can the olga sir gave? this is her testimony and school number 15 of mar you both from starting from the 25th of february. the ukrainian armed forces took up positions and left on the 7th of march. they directed fire from there. our building was badly damaged from the

shelling on the 8th and 9th of march. there were the intense shelling intentionally targeting residential homes. ukrainian soldiers were asked why they're doing it. they were replied that until they destroyed the entire russian spirit in whole, they will remain there. they started looting immediately. they plundered all the sharps. and it was the a forces of the dentist group peoples republic that helped evacuate us and drove us to among gucia. there are many other heart rending stories. there are russians and ukrainians, tortured to death with swastikas, burned into their chests. there are looters and, and criminals who eat distributed weapons to their civilians and foreigners who are held hostages. and in spite of all factual evidence and common sense, you're trying to lay the blame for their death on the russian military. this is

absolutely unacceptable in the fact that even consider that russian military would be capable of this. and now we're seeing a blatant criminally staged events with the ukranian civilians who are killed by their own radicals in the best traditions of get bows to accused the russian army those killed in the areas from which to the russian forces withdrew after encouraging peace negotiations in istanbul, the now it turns out that we shouldn't have with john. i'm talking about boucher 1st and foremost. i understand that you were shown you. she saw corpses and heard testimonials, but you only saw what they showed you. you couldn't ignore the flagrant inconsistencies in the version of events which are being promoted by ukrainian and western media. the fact that the corpses were not there right after the withdrawal of the our russian forces, which is confirmed by several videos and the fact that their recordings,

where ukrainian radicals urged, is shooting at those with white arm bands in other words, against civilians. if you saw that the video very carefully, that was shown today, you'll see that those people who are on the ground have a wide arm bands. these are civilians and the fact that the corpses on the video no way resemble those that could have been lying on the street for 3 or 4 days. and based on the sensational and completely scientifically absurd information on the new york times, there were there since the 20th of march. so the only ones who could fall for this fake are absolutely della 10th arden western partners. you don't want to hear anything and have been calling black white and vice versa for a long time. now. unfortunately, these countries don't give a hoot about ukraine itself. it's simply upon in the, in the geopolitical game against russia, which they will sacrifice easily. but in the meantime,

they will try to prolong the conflict by delivering as much weapons as possible and ammunition. but the most important thing is that how have we sunk to such depths of cruelty that nationalists are displaying. for example, those from the as of battalion and you, i am, i am addressing girly cranium, resonant in your interview with the americans, media you coyly bashfully state that they are what they are. i really hope that you will reflect on this and hope that you will find a solution to the situation because it depends only on you. because we came to you to ukraine not to conquer lands. we came to bring the long awaited piece to the blood. so land of dunbar, not a truce, but a true lasting piece. and for this we need to rude out the cruelty which i mention . we need to cut out the malignant nazi tumor that is consuming ukraine and would in time begin to consume russia. and we will achieve that goal, i hope,

sooner rather than later because there is no other outcome. we are not shooting against civilian targets in order to save as many civilians as possible. this precisely why we're not advancing as fast as many expected. we're not acting like americans and their allies in iraq and syria were raising entire cities to the ground. they had no pity for them, but we felt great pity because these are people who are close to us. that radicals have nothing to lose, they couldn't care less about civilians, they're ready to take to the grave with them the entire population of the grain, as was clearly demonstrated by the provocation in boucher don't allow the west to achieve its goals. blood, dimmer alexandra ridge, make the right decisions that are needed for your country because the west is ready to fight that in the ukraine until the last ukrainian take make that decision. now, because the real, you know, the real situation on the front later,

i think it might be too late soon. thank you very much for your attention. i thank the representative of the russian federation for his statement and i now get the floor to the representative of ireland. let's bring it has him. i had better for some analysis on what the russian ambassador to the u. n. had to say just a moment ago, has them so the, the russian ambassador are really hitting back at the ukranian president after, of course, zalinski accused moscow off what he described as war crimes. indeed that he hip back or this piece by the ukrainian president on 2 fronts here on one. he said basically, and he reiterated the position of the russian government over the last 3 days. that the foot it's coming out of butcher was staged was fake, was fabricated. by what the russians had been describing as their disinformation

campaign, targeting a russia. and he said that the, the russian ambassador said that a varsity of india, that the footage itself is not consisting it consistent with many realities on the ground. the fact that the rushes put out on the 30th of march following progress in that talks between the russians and the ukrainians. and that many of those people shown were civilians. and he's been accusing. and what he described as a nationalist and nazi is in the acquainted army for killing civilians and staging this to look like this was something done by the russians. then he further expand it into the very irrational of the russian military campaign in ukraine. he said, addressing president zalinski that you should have addressed the core issue, which is you failing to clamp down on what the russians have been describing as naturalists and, and nazis. you have failed on clamping down on what on the attacks targeting

the russian speaking community in, in the ukraine. and then he said that russia remains committed to its ultimate goal, which is the liberation of le ganske and juniors on, on that particular issue. he also hit back at the ukrainian president saying that you came back to power and we thought this was going to be conducive to an everlasting bees who made some commitments and your faith to deliver on those that just particularly when it comes to the protection of the communities in nor ganske and yes, and therefore the russians took it on their own hands to move a forward. so, so we're, we're, we're back now to a war of narratives of the ukrainian beaming the russians and the russians coming out and saying this is stage, this is fabricated. this is part of an western media campaign to just deflect

attention from the core realities on the ground and from an attempt to deflect the reality on the ground. yeah, and has some one were in an interesting point. i think that it would, that was raised by the russian ambassador to the on is that he had a strong words for the international community as well. are those that are saving with ukraine, saying that they actually don't care about ukraine? yes, and this is what every single senior official in russia has been saying over the last few weeks, metro pasco, of the spokesperson of the kremlin, sir, gala rob minister of foreign affairs. different officials of the duma different senior ministry officials that this basically have been accusing the west and the unfriendly country is, or it's a reference to the e u. u. s. and other countries for providing weapons to the ukraine, is that because they care about the cranium just because,

according to the russians, because they want to undermine russia's national security. and they've been saying that this is all a or the other natures trying to further expand its influence eastwards and encroaching east towards the border with russia and that ultimately they are telling the ukrainians that is about time. if you want to negotiate a settlement, you have to come to us and we can, we can negotiate a deal if you continue to rely on the west end of the americas. the will be abandon you the same way they have been abandoning other countries. and this is a, a theme that has been recurring again and again on the, on the russian media. and he has been reiterated by many senior officials. and this explains white when you, when you listen to what a facility dementia has been saying, the, the of the russian embassy reader is ultimately, are addressing most of the time his, his,

his speech to vladimir zelinski is saying that you have to understand our motive. you have to understand our rational, and by the end of the day, you have to understand that this is something that we will ultimately have to be decided bit when the russians and between the acclaim years and they're in. this explains why, for example, earlier today they are andre rudin co. the deputy foreign minister has been saying this by or you hear about butcher. the prospect for progress in the talks will continue and that the talks was with the russians, and the ukrainian continue. although he said that it's too early to talk about a major progress when it comes to the list of the countries which will be serving as guarantors in the security arrangements. we're still the talks. are there the talks under way? they say that they are looking forward to see some progress. all the tours are then at the same time, they saw this whole butcher story as something that has been done to just deflect

attention from the, from the core issues in, in, in, in ukraine. and this explains, for example, why demetri pascal of the spokesperson of the cramming has been being that he doesn't have his doubts that there will ever be an impartial investigation in to butcher. why? because he, along with all the li, those the have been talking to the media to the old people, haine, in my, in russia, they have been saying that what is happening on the ground is a series of coordinated attempts by the west. and the west is a term that they have been using extensively over the last few weeks. this is an attempt to discredit russia, and this is an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that we've been talking to the americans for many, many years about the need to rethink the security architecture in europe to rethink ne, to expansion and to address 2 key issues for the, for the russians. it,

as far as ukraine is concerned, 1st, while they describe as an unprecedented rise of nationalism, a nationalist and nazis in ukraine, and their attacks on russian speaking communities. number 2, the protection for the dom bus bridge and where you have the 2 self declared republics of law, ganske and don yeske, the russians say when we didn't, we didn't get any general answer from the ukraine is from nato. and from where americans were decided to take action. and this explains where they have been describing as a special operating operation in the ukraine law. they're saying that it has moved to stage 2, which is the focus on one particular area to the east wishes. don't bust and we're hoping to see some progress as far as the talks are concerned because the ultimate tens of the russians is this. that is the list of demands which they have presented

to the ukrainians. if they get a yes from the ukrainians, there will be a comprehensive settlement along with a ceasefire. unless that happens. situation will continue to say thank you so much as a man batter is reporting for us from moscow. back now to new york and the un headquarters will bring in kristen salumi. i, you know, kristen, we've heard from a number of speaker so far, and i suppose it's just important to take a step back and put it all in context and tell us what the purpose of this session is. exactly. that's going on right now. while the united kingdom called the security council meeting and they made no bones about it when they did so that their meeting was being called to keep the focus on the conflict in ukraine and to keep the pressure on russia. the nato align members of the council have been very unified and consistent in calling for an end to this war. the united nations officials have also called on russia to respect international law and international

borders. moving forward in the attacks in boucher, the russian withdrawal in the evidence of civilian casualties that we've seen play out. and screens around the world really added urgency to the meeting that was called to day no outcome expected in terms of a vote. but another attempt by the security council to stay apprised of the latest developments on the ground. we had briefings from the secretary general again, very strong calling. the current situation is the biggest threat to international order that has been around since world war 2 i. he talked about the need to protect civilians on the ground and efforts at accountability over boucher in particular saying that the human rights commissioner had noted evidence of possible war crimes and that a investigation would be needed to carry that out. and so we've heard from president

lansky of you praying for the 1st time addressing the council, also calling for an investigation and counsel member after council member again, calling for accountability a while russia again, as we just heard, giving it's defense of what it calls its special military operation in ukraine as a way to protect russian russian back russian citizens and citizens in ukraine who support russia and, and making accusations back at ukraine as well for war crimes on the ground there. but some very dramatic moments. also, when the ukranian president played a video showing graphic images of what clearly were older people, women, children, that had been killed in this conflict as a reminder of what's happening and what's at stake. and also another theme that

we're seeing play out is how this fits into international law and what the repercussions are for countries who may not be directly involved in the crisis, but are now suffering from higher gas prices, higher food prices and greater insecurity. and it's the least developed poorest countries that are actually feeling those implications the most though they have the least to do with the situation. thank you. kristen. thank you so much. kristen salumi reporting from the united nations. let's just listen to what the u. s. ambassador to the un told the security council earlier. we've all seen the gruesome photos, lifeless bodies lying in the streets, apparently summarily executed. their hands tied behind their backs. as we work to independently confirm the events depicted in these images, i would remind this counsel that based on the currently available information, the united states has assessed that members of russia's forces have committed war

crimes, was brand michael newton who's a professor of practice of law and political science and the vanderbilt university . he's joining us live from nashville, tennessee. welcome to al jazeera sir. so, you know, at the un security council, we just heard from the lensky president of ukraine as well as other speakers asking for accountability and demanding. the un security council looks at the what he describes as crimes that had been committed against in the ukraine. in fact, how do you see this process of accountability actually playing out? well, i'm reminded of the, the old adage from alexander so it's a nice and violent says nothing to cover itself up with that lives. we, concrete investigations, we need definitive investigations. they need to be transparent. they need to be that evidence needs to be available to every jurisdiction in the world. can

prosecute these cases, which is every domestic jurisdiction, certainly ukrainian authorities and obviously the international criminal court. and that will be the pathway, i believe. so talk to us a little bit about this idea of the international criminal court. what would be the process of prosecuting work crimes there? well, i mean, from the ukrainian perspective, these crimes began in 2014. the russians have have a long documented record of committing what we call the violations of occupation law, which are in fact great breaches of the geneva conventions. so the international criminal court has open an investigation. the legal predicate funding there's, there's a reasonable basis to believe that crimes have been committed. well now we're seeing video image. of course, there's a reasonable basis to believe that. but the political rhetoric, which is itself helpful in some ways, in no way substitutes for the granular legal rhetoric of how we prove every act,

every mental element, every intention and effects, precise individual responsibility on individual perpetrators. that's the legal task . and that's the challenge that we now face as a united, international community to beneath that and impartial investigation will actually take place at least in boucher to discover what exactly happened there. oh, actually do you know, i've been in contact with ukrainian human rights advocates who have been truly heroic over the last several years documenting violations of occupation law. and now that ever it is shifted in a very material way in the truth is that, you know, we cooperate these, these crimes are the common heritage of mankind. therefore, in my opinion, the evidence is the common heritage of mankind. it should be available to any court, any defendant,

any jurisdiction around the world. international criminal court tends to operate in a sort of a closed ecosystem where it keeps his evidence to itself. the crimes in boca and other crimes committed across ukraine are the exception that rules every very every organization, every n g o, every local civil society, every human rights in g l, will work together to document these crimes. and if the russians want to help great, but so far they're lying. and then i, here's the thing though, the strategy, they are saying the russians are saying that what happened in boucher was stage and they will provide evidence. what kind of evidence do you think they will provide that could perhaps or not show whether or not they were responsible? yeah. listen under international criminal law and international work crimes law, there's never a justification for murdering innocent civilian. neither is there any justification

ever under any potential articulable theory for intentionally targeting innocence neither in an occupation setting, is there any legal justification for murdering innocent civilians. but here's where you have to balance the press reports. for example, the russian headquarters in booth reported to have 18 dead bodies in the basement, some of which showed signs of torture. you verify that you documented. but more importantly, you also augment it with eye witness accounts with signals intelligence accounts with orders, with testimony from refugees, with testimonies from russian commanders, right, who are talking on wanting to each other and that's how you build this kind of a k. okay, we will leave it there, we're just coming up to the top of the hour. thank you so much for speaking to us. michael newton from nashville over and tennessee. so we will take a very short break right here on al jazeera and we'll be back right after the break

. we'll how much more news for you coming out of the un security council? and more out of the developments in ukraine. ah ah ah, a. ready

with wherever you go in the world, one airline goes to make it be exceptional. katara going places pick up african stories from african perspective, a short documentary from african feel me a little bit now, cuz i'm not sure of the adventures of

a car and lead to africa di rights on al jazeera ah, revealing eco friendly solutions to come back to our planning on al jazeera, the french president tells the un security council it should be dissolved, this account, worked for peace in his country and elsewhere. ah, you're watching, i'll just live from headquarters in delphi. this is our continuing coverage of ukraine's war, which is again, taking center stage at the un. i'm daddy and obligate the rest of the master says the country has been accused of stage atrocities and it's actually ukrainian forces who are committing crime.