that in your mindset, a children's hospital in nikolai of destroyed by the russian strike yesterday was the military target. and perhaps a child killed as a result of the strike was a ukrainian nationalist. the only truth you've said is that you are not moving as planned. and the only reason is the resistance of the ukrainian army and the ukrainian people, not your smart, military planning. the u. korean people who realize quite clear what the russian world in reality means. everything being the national community for the seller. there is a with ukraine. ukraine will win in his territory and the entire world will win despite the threats that the criminal and elias rose

in the face just in school to counsel chemba. finally, he, there is anything that we have to thank the russian rep sensitive for it is he's acknowledgment and the yesterday's press conference. that's russia is waging war against the queen war you said several times, not the special operation. and i consider these confession shall impact the you and assessment of what is going on in the center of europe. perhaps it was the unique moment when we should believe what fully accredited, representative says in the united nations. hence

once again, a reminder to put in diplomats ruben strobe denied. any knowledge of concentration camps. racial external contamination policies, yet was found guilty at new medical crime. trial and he will know what happened to him on the 16th of october. 1946. i thank you. i thank the representative of ukraine for his statement. i now give the floor to his excellency mister all skirt the head of delegation of the european union city, united nations. thank you, madam president. i addressed the security council on behalf of the european union and his member states north macedonia, montenegro. now benuya was known as the governor, iceland unleashed in stein, republic of mo, dover, georgia, monaco and san marino,

all aligned themselves with this statement. and i wanted to stop by congratulating you madam madam president, for the united kingdom, for assuming the presidency for the month of april and for convening this meeting and for inviting us to speak. can also acknowledge the presidency of march of the united arab emirates. i want to thank sector general dis, under sector donald decarlo and griffith for their presentations. and i want to express our full support, solidarity and respect for the heroic people of ukraine, as embodied by their message this morning by president zalinski. when i'm president, 41 days ago, russia decided to wage a war of aggression against ukraine in blatant violation of international law. the principles of the un charter and of the key of the o. s. c, e, and a front to the rule space to order and to the global security. instability, and we have heard and seen again today the tremendous cost to the people of ukraine

. the dramatic consequences of russia's war of choice are well known. thousands of life have been have been lost over 11000000 people. most of them, women and children have been forced to leave their homes over 500 schools and 52 hospitals have been shelled. anti cities had been raised to the ground. the unfolding drama in maria, pole, and the images from boucher stain. our common humanity, russia must stop this senseless act of violence. the e condemns in the strongest terms, rushes and justified an unprovoked war. aggression against ukraine. we demand that russia immediately stop its military aggression, immediately and unconditionally withdrawal forces from the entire term to ukraine, and fully respect ukraine's territorial integrity. sovereignty in independence, within its internationally recognized borders as demanded by the united nations general assembly. we condemn in the strongest possible terms,

the reported atrocities committed by the russian armed forces in a number of occupied ukrainian towns haunting images of massacres, with large numbers of civilian deaths and casualties, as well as destruction of civilian infrastructure, show the true face of russia's brutal war of aggression, these massacres will be inscribed in the list of atrocities committed by russian european soil. the russian authorities are responsible for these crimes committed while they had effect of control of the area. they are subject to the international law of occupation. russia is directing it, talks against the civilian population and is targeting civilian objects, including hospitals, medical facilities, school, some shelters. these war crimes must stop immediately. those responsible will be held to account in accordance with international law. we welcomed international court of justice as provisional measures, ordering russia to suspend military operations. immediately. we fully support the

investigation launched by the prosecutor of the international criminal court into war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the work of the independent commission of inquiry. the e was assisting the ukrainian prosecutor general and civil society in the collection and preservation of evidence of the war crimes. it is clear, there must be and there will be accountability the you and his member states are providing shelter for the more than 4000000 refugees that fled russia's violence. they do so regardless of nationality at nicety, religion, or we have adopted sanctions against the russian government. it's financial and defense sectors, and those individuals enabling and financing the aggression. we have committed significant funding to the un humanitarian flash appeal and regional refugee response plans for ukraine. so far, the, even it's member states of mobilized over 1100000000 euros in emergency aid. this comes on top of the 2400000 euros in humanitarian emergency in early recovery

assistance. the, when it's meant the states to provide it to ukraine since 2014, in the largest ever operation under the civil protection mechanism. 29 countries, all u member states together in norway in turkey. i've responded to the request for assistance from ukraine as a 4th of april over 13000 tons of medicines, hospital equipment, ambulances, and 55 to equipment, food and energy supplies have arrived in ukraine. european leaders have set up a ukraine solidarity trust fund channel support to post war post war reconstruction, and at the pledging event on 9th of april with canada. we will further showcase that we stand in words and deeds with the courageous people of ukraine. when i'm president, after the security council was un, unable to take action, the general assembly demonstrated once again, less than 2 weeks ago. the overwhelming international rejection of the russian

aggression and an overwhelming support to addressing the humanitarian crisis in ukraine. the international community demanded safe and unhindered passage for civil civilians fleeing violence as well as humanitarian access to those in need. international humanitarian law must be respected. the dramatic consequences of russia's war against you. crane are not limited to europe. they are global. ukrainian farmers are prevented from sewing as a result of russian shelling ships filled with wheat and but are blocked in black c ports by russian military forces. as a result, food prices of rocketed, pushing people into poverty and threatening to destabilize entire regions the poorest countries, as we've heard of the most vulnerable to shocks in food prices. all this is a direct result of the war, despite russia's cynical attempts to shift the blame when i'm president, the e u and it's member states of fully mobilized to end the war in line with

international law and the un charter. but at the same time, crisis, the world over need are urgent attention. the e will continue to provide humanitarian and development support to our partner countries from north africa to the middle east and from sub saharan africa to asia . we are scaling up on milk lateral action to provide support to countries with acute food insecurity and are committed to keeping global trade routes out open. so agricultural staples can feed the world. the was pledged 2500000000 euros for international corporation related to nutrition. for the period 2021 to 2024. we also fully support the work of the un to deliver and scaling up humanitarian assistance, protect refugees, and work towards the cease fire. with a particular focus on food security, we will contribute to the work of the global crisis response group to deal with the global, social and economic effects of the war. we heard your recommendations this morning,

sector general, and we have already launched a strategy for safeguarding food security and reinforcing the cit resilience of food systems backed by increased assistance. madam president, once again we call on russia to cease the destruction of innocent life across ukraine and immediately and unconditionally withdraw all the troops. we call for an immediate cease fire safe passage to civilians trapped in wall sounds, an uninterrupted humanitarian axis. we stand in soda down to the people of you, crime and all other people affected by the war of russian aggression. we stand in support of ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity. and we will continue to work diligently with the un and our partners to end this aggression and address the military needs. i thank you manifest. i thank his excellency mister skinner for his statement. i also acknowledge the written statement submitted by the delegation of poland in earlier before the meeting and also from the 8 nordic,

they'll take countries. there are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. the meeting is gen on that no. busy the meeting is adjourned, that is the un security council meeting that has taken place on this situation in ukraine. and you were hearing the u. k. ambassador barbara woodward, she holds the the u. k. of course, hold the rotating council presidency. so she adjourned at that meeting, and just before her, we heard from the representative to the united nations, calling for an end and an immediate cease fire in ukraine. and before he spoke, we did hear from the a russian ambassador to the un. and then a rebuttal from the ukrainian ambassador to the you and as well. so just in the past few hours, ukraine's president also addressed the security council for the 1st time, followed him as zalinski along with the u. s. and european governments who all

accuse russia af atrocities, and the russian ambassador said to the allegations leveled against his country, have no merit here are the highlights of some of what's been said over the past few hours. and i did with big la marie, 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. either remove russia from the council, so cannot block decisions about its own war. the other option is to reform to secure, to cancel, to work for peace. if there isn't an alternative, then we should de, sold the secret to cancel altogether. more rude as deluxe is 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 you. 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 day. we're not acting like americans in their allies in iraq and syria with 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. 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. that was on from tucson. young men though. yeah. under international law, civilians should be sped any forms of violence in armed conflict and attacks on civilians are unacceptable and shouldn't occur. the reported images from boucher of

very disturbing any and all accusations must be based on facts before conclusions are drawn. so we're alive and cave moscow and the united nations as well. and we'll start with kristen salumi who is joining us from the un some highly charged statements coming out of the un earlier. kristin, just talk us through some of the take away messages. a fascinating meeting of the un security council with members going, responding, making accusations, going back and forth, a lot of inter changes between council members, something we don't typically see. we have caught countries like the united states in the united kingdom, backing up ukraine, who's president vladimir zalinski did make his 1st appearance before the security council. since the start of this conflict, they've been pointing to the images in boucher as evidence of war

crimes. calling for that investigation and calling the entire credibility of the united nation system into account, we heard as lensky say, that the right of the veto on the security council should not become the right of death. that it should not give russia a pass to what it alleges are international crimes crimes that the united kingdom said were laid bare when russia withdrew and retreated from the town of boucher russia. giving a hardy defence of its actions. again, claiming that it is never targeted civilians and in boucher in particular. i. he said that the withdrawing of russian troops, there was a gesture of good will and that they had never stopped citizens from moving around or from using their cell phones. i. he disputed the evidence that has been presented by ukraine and others as fake news that this

had been staged by ukraine, but at the same time resisting calls for an investigation. so un officials who are constantly tasked with the job of providing the facts and not opinions and not taking sides. and things also spoke to increasing evidence of war crimes. and the need for investigation. those calls coming from the high camp. nothing human rights and the secretary general himself. so all of that laid out in the security council today. thank you so much. kristin christmas and new me reporting from the united nations. we will now cross to ukraine itself and bring an enron con, he's joining us in that capital. keith, to tell us about a president vladimir zalinski, his appearance at the security council, the 1st time his he's ever done. so in ron, how significant was it? it was incredibly significant if you take a look at the way the speech was structured,

it was really into very different parts. the 1st part was a catalogue of the russian allege war crimes that he says the russians did within the town of boucher and in other places. it was also i look at some of the atrocities that took place to very impassioned speech. talking about some of the things that the russians did, then it was very much a message to united nations security council. he'd be gotten that section of the speech by saying that the russians will blame everyone, and they will say the events abuto was stage, but we will investigate. he says, we will involve the international criminal court that's going to be difficult for him to do because russia is not a signatory to that particular international body that weren't stop. and they said, we will show the rest of the war criminals in the world. that if the biggest criminal is punished, they will all be. and then he said, adverse gets away with this. then there's no international law. you need to act

immediately. the security council needs to be reformed. a veto can't be the right to die. a veto is, is that the apparatus that any one of the panel members of yours you're in security council can use when it comes to voting, for example. now, he also talks about something akin to the nuremberg true tribunals that happened after the 2nd world war. he said, the people who gave the orders must be brought to justice. i have to say that was echoed in an interview that did with the attorney general head who laid out 2 very key strategies that i have. one is the international criminal court. the other is actually to actually prosecuting people within that ukraine itself. and even if that has to be done without those people physically being caught in absentia as it were, it's something that they are looking to pursue. and they'll do that if they don't get the international support. the go to mass zalinski was asking for, in this particular this a speech. he also said once again that we need to transform the world security

system, he said, and this is really powerful, perhaps more powerful a tim, assess of woods than is used with any of the other speeches he's given. said, if you can't reform the insecurity counsel, then you need to remove russia. and if you can't remove russia, then you need to dissolve yourself all together. and then afterwards, he showed a video of some of the atrocities that he says, some place within the various different towns in the ukraine. but once again, this was a much more impassioned speech than we've seen him gave the u. s. congress, the grace house of parliament, various european governments, the door for him. and he went to butcher the day before we were there that day as well. on monday, he saw everything that we saw and that must have had an impact on the way he delivered that speech that he certainly saw with his own eyes water. ah, couldn't he considers ukraine concerns? we've russian rule crimes. and i think that was the driving factor hit. okay, thank you so much. and montana is reporting for us from keith while there

was certainly russian rebuttal let sir find out more with him. i had better who's joining us from moscow. so the russians had strong words for the ukrainians, perhaps as expected hash and, but they also had some strong words for the, the western countries who support ukraine. tell us more. well very let me 1st update you on the very latest because we're having now near reactions from the bush and myself. i had a fasa gay love drove. he says that, and this is, i'm quoting him. the west is trying to derail talks between the russians. andy ukrainians by fueling hysteria over butcher and that's right after her reports emerged from butcher, the ukrainians. tried to hold talks with the russians, he went on to say that her they and the ukrainians,

and they have to understand that they, they have to come to negotiating tables with the russians for an ultimate her, a deal. and her, the read the if you see the, the, the line of reasoning of the russians from vasily dementia when he was addressing the united nations security council. it is a wanted to this credit, the whole report about russians or involvement in in butch. and he said that on the 30th of march, the russians decided to pull out from the cave reach and following a progress in the talks between the russians and the ukrainians. in his stumble, a day later, he added the mayor of the region are within which a butcher, as part of that region, came out in a video talking about the area now under ukraine's control. and nothing was met and

about butch, until april. the cert for the russians, this was the 1st time that the story about butcher emerged for them. this is clear indication that something happened in between. now, from russia perspective, they have absolutely no doubt that this is something done by the air. what they describe as nationalists and masses to discredit a russia. there's another line of visiting here, which is basically each time a russian officer would come out, who will say that the west, the americans in particular, are engaged in a day or a ward of disinformation to try to discredit her a russia. and this explains why, for example, to read the benzo was telling her the russian and the ukranian president vladimir zelinski. that finally has to understand that those who are back in ham will have backing him. now will abandon him one day. and therefore,

he would have no other option, but to talk to the russians for a final settlement and to day across the board, the duma chairman the spokesperson of the kremlin, the deputy chairman of the security council. i've always been saying when they were asked about butcher that this is false fake, brought up a provocation by the west to the right to deflect attention from talks to the ray of the talks and to undermine and a discredit, a russia. this is something the russians believe in the russian officials have been reiterating over the last few days. and this explains why in a benzo was, had him back at zelinski a telling him when he came to power in 2019, we had high hopes that things would be better, will turn at noon that chapter and we start a new one. you did nothing of that. he did nothing on the clamping down on the nazis and the nationalist, is it nothing when unsafe our grievances about her as the problems faced by the

russian speaking communities in don bus, her region. and this is exactly what the russians having said over the last few weeks, they say that the world does not want to understand, but the military campaign we undertake him in ukraine peaceful sol, protection of our own people. and for the liberation of the south declared republics of logans, continue ask, okay, hash and thank you so much estimate how about is reporting from moscow? now on the situation in boucher satellite, images of the ukrainian town have appeared which were 2 weeks before the russians left the town. so images provided by macs, our technologies seemed to show that the civilians were killed when the town was under. the control of russian troops, at least 11 of those bodies had been on the street since march. the 11th. the causes of death are unclear. the bodies were scattered over nearly a kilometer off. the balloons go st. and these are just some of the bodies

discovered. after ukraine reach control of the town that's asked me to jingle, and he's the executive director of the open society justice initiative. he's joining us from new york and he was a coordinator of prosecutions. and a senior trial attorney in the office of the prosecutor at the international criminal court. welcome to al jazeera sir. if i can 1st, just ask you about, thank you, what the russian ambassador had to say a few moments ago. and that is that not a single civilian suffered from any kind of violence while russian forces controlled boucher. i mean there are so many claims and counterclaims going on right now. how are we to kind of make sense of what's being said? that's exactly why we need independent investigation. and as we know, the ukranian authorities are already carrying out vigorous criminal investigations, ukrainian, prosecutors, and investigators under their national law. and we know that the international

criminal court based on the hey, he's carrying out its own investigations with its own team in the country and elsewhere of the alleged crimes under the i. c. c governing role statute including war crimes and crimes against humanity. so those investigations need to go forward, but what we've seen so far certainly suggests a wave, atrocious criminality. when you see pictures of people lying and the street with. ready bullet holes in the head with hands tied behind their backs, the sh shuttle light imagery that's been referred to, suggesting very clearly the contrary to the claims of the russian authorities. these, these bodies have been in those positions since the time that russian forces were in control of those areas. those are very suggestive of a wave of war crimes that have taken place and these investigations need to go forward, need to be tried in court. the allegations need to be tested against the evidence and and the law must be followed in that way. if we just look at the i c c

investigation for just a moment, this was launched previously. certainly before the incident in boucher. is it a complication for the investigation that both russia and ukraine or not have not ratified the rome statute? how does that actually enjoy the investigation? it's an important question. i think it's important to be clear that the rome statute of the international criminal court grants jurisdiction to the court over those persons who are nationals of that is, are citizens of war. they or whether they committed crimes on the territory of states that have ratified the treaty. now, in the case of ukraine, it has ratified the wrong statute, but it has used an alternative procedure to effectively grant jurisdiction to the court to examine what is happening in the countries. so all crimes within the wrong

statue taking place on the territory of ukraine are within the court's jurisdiction . whoever commits them on the territory of, of ukraine. the challenge, of course, in many of these situations will be what that means. practically for powerful figures in the military or political fears in russia, as you say, russia has not ratify the treaty. and even though in legal theory, the law says that they may be subject to the court jurisdiction, securing custody over them. over time may be a challenge proving their criminal responsibility for the events on the ground may be a challenge. but these are all. these are all challenges that investigators and prosecutors are dealt with previously and they are not insurmountable. and it seems to me these investigations simply must proceed and these questions will have to be addressed. and if we look at boucher and particular, i mean there are calls from we heard zelinski calling for accountability. other ambassadors calling for for an investigation into boucher. how do you see that

playing out and how long do you think it would take we know that complicated criminal investigations take time. they are based on witness testimony and we know they're. busy already investigators ukrainian prosecutors are interviewing witnesses and publicly reported. they are based on satellite imagery to show where military forces are located. what kinds of structural damages have been taking place there based on social media, intrigued by various persons who may admit to various crimes who may reveal information in the course of their entries, etc. so a range of information will be aggregated, collected, and then the challenge will be, as i say, proving the linkage evidence to show the responsibility of those higher up the chain who were not present where these atrocities were taking place. but who may have ordered the atrocities or those who may have known about them and failed to

prevent them knowing that they were taking place, that kind of command responsibility of military and political leaders will be the most challenging to prove. but it is certainly given the scale and the pattern of what we're seeing in boucher and elsewhere in ukraine. it certainly raises the question of criminal responsibility at the highest level of the russian federation . okay, we'll leave it there. thank you so much, jim golden for joining us from new york. thank you. a. here's a check of the headlines on al jazeera ukraine presidents, his address, the un security council accusing russia deliberately killing, torturing, and raping civilians, volunteers. lensky spoke via video link from keith or the last little rainy. we need decisions from the security council for peace in ukraine. if you don't know.