Zelensky vows to expose truth of Russian war crimes in Ukraine

More Russian massacres of Ukrainian civilians remain to be uncovered, President Zelensky said, ahead of an address to the United Nations security council, as he promised to identify individuals responsible for war crimes.

 “There is already information that the number of victims of the occupiers may be even higher in Borodyanka and some other liberated cities,” Zelensky said in a video address. “We are already doing everything possible to identify all the Russian military involved in these crimes.”

The Ukrainian leader added that his country had no option but to negotiate with Russia to end nearly six weeks of conflict, but that he and President Putin might not personally hold talks, as had previously been suggested.

In other developments:

• Russia reacted angrily to a move by the United States and Britain to suspend Moscow’s participation in the UN’s human rights council.
• Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, denounced the expulsion of its diplomats from western countries, warning that “we will end up just looking at each other only through gun sights”.
• Satellite photographs first published in the New York Times show that the bodies of dead civilians apparently bound and shot by Russian soldiers were on the street before they withdrew from the town of Bucha, disproving Moscow’s claims that they were placed there by Ukraine.
• Britain called for a “clear timetable” for ending western use of Russian energy.

• The cyber-hacking group Anonymous claimed to have posted online the leaked personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

According to British intelligence, Ukrainian forces have retaken key terrain in the north of the country, having forced Russian troops to retreat from the areas around the city of Chernihiv and north of the capital, Kyiv.

The Ministry of Defence update said low-level fighting was likely in some parts of the newly recaptured regions, but would “diminish significantly” over the coming week as the remainder of Russian forces withdraw.

Ukraine’s military warned this morning that Russian troops were regrouping and mustering for an offensive in the Donbas in the country’s east. “The goal is to establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the Ukrainian General Staff said, adding that Russia’s efforts focused on the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne as well as establishing full control of Mariupol. Russian troops also continue to block the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Zelensky said in a television interview that Ukraine’s efforts to push back Russian troops from Mariupol, the besieged port on the Sea of Azov, were facing difficulties.

He also said that Turkey had proposed a plan to help evacuate wounded people and dead bodies from the city, but that the initiative depended on Russian co-operation.

Zelensky will make his first address to the UN security council today as more world leaders call for a war crimes investigation into the killing of civilians around Kyiv.

 “This will be a joint work of our state with the European Union and international institutions, in particular with the International Criminal Court,” Zelensky said.

“All crimes of the occupiers are documented. The necessary procedural basis is provided for bringing the guilty Russian military to justice for every crime they commit.”

Ukrainian officials said that the more than 400 bodies of civilians discovered so far may soon be eclipsed when killings elsewhere are fully reckoned. The country’s chief prosecutor, Iryna Venediktova, warned that the situation appeared to be worse in the town of Borodyanka, 28 miles north west of Kyiv, although she did not give details.

 “I can tell you without exaggeration but with great sorrow that the situation in Mariupol is much worse compared to what we’ve seen in Bucha and other cities, towns, and villages nearby Kyiv,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, said the reports of civilian killings in Bucha were “fakes” aimed at discrediting Russia. Moscow said it would present “empirical evidence” to the United Nations security council today, proving its forces were not involved.

Zelensky said the events in Bucha were unforgivable but Ukraine and Russia should take the difficult option of pursuing talks.

 “All of us, including myself, will perceive even the possibility of negotiations [with Russia] as a challenge,” he said in a televised interview. Asked whether he and Putin would hold direct talks, Zelensky said it was possible but gave no details.

A deputy Russian foreign minister said negotiations with Ukraine were continuing via video link today, according to Russian media.

In addition, western allies are in discussions about what type of lethal weapons to send to Ukraine to help its armed forces repel forces in the east, with the Americans expected to facilitate the transfer of tanks to the country. It is understood the UK could help with the supply of armoured vehicles.

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, who served as Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander of Europe, said the West must be wary of supplying tanks and armoured vehicles to Ukraine because Putin could become like a “cornered rat” and trigger a world war.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We need to think very carefully about where Mr Putin’s red lines might be. We need to bring this war to an end as quickly as we can with as little further pain to the Ukrainians.

“We now have the possibility of the war coming to an end more quickly by applying more leverage, more combat power, in the hands of the Ukrainians against the Russians.”

However General Sir Chris Deverell, who was in charge of military intelligence, cyber and special forces as commander of the Joint Forces Command until 2019 when he retired from the army, said the limited supply of weapons to Ukraine was not enough.

 “We must mobilise our military capability and make Putin and his hyenas leave Ukraine”, he said.

During a visit to Romania, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said, “Russia’s participation on the human rights council is a farce … The images out of Bucha and devastation across Ukraine require us to now match our words with action. We cannot let a member state that is subverting every principle we hold dear to continue to participate.”

Russia’s UN ambassador called the effort to suspend its membership of the human rights council “unbelievable” and said it would not be helpful to peace talks.

After France and Germany announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, Medvedev wrote on Telegram: “Who have they punished? First of all, themselves.

 “If this continues, it will be fitting … to slam shut the door on western embassies. It will be cheaper for everyone. And then we will end up just looking at each other only through gunsights.”