YouSaid · the spoken record

President Zelenskyy

lines on the record

77

first

2022-04-05

most recent

2023-09-20

sittings or episodes

7

sources

un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “We need to hold it to account for its terrorism, or it will expand its terrorist activity to other countries in Europe and Asia — the Baltic States, Poland, Moldova, Kazakhstan. Many nations have already heard threats from Russian officials and State propagandists. I am grateful to all the diligent and civilized States that share our position and are helping to defend the international legal order. This meeting of the Security Council was convened following the Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, but it should never be adjourned. It would have to continue around the clock, day after day, to give us enough time to discuss every terrorist act of the Russian State. The Charter gives us all the tools to influence any violator of the rules of the Organization, any aggressor, any terrorist State.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

2. “Everyone can access the information on the numbers of mass graves that appeared around the city of Mariupol alone after the Russian army razed it to the ground. It was a city of 500,000 residents, and now it lies in ruins. In the case of the genocide in Rwanda, the Security Council established an international tribunal within six months of the start of the genocide. More than four months have passed since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and more than eight years since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in Donbas and the occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which has been repeatedly condemned in the General Assembly. We need to act urgently and do everything possible to make Russia stop its killing spree, the murders of children, people, everyone.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

3. “I urge the Council to deprive the delegation of this terrorist State of its powers. It is possible, necessary and fair. Russia does not have the right to remain on the Security Council, and that path is not as arduous as some may believe. We need only exercise some consistency and the appropriate political will. That is the only logical way for the Charter to work and be respected by all Members of the Organization. Furthermore, the Organization is now strong enough to bring the terrorist State to account. Chapter VII of the Charter allows for the establishment of a special international tribunal to investigate the actions of the Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil. The word “genocide” has been used repeatedly. Everyone here has seen what the Russian occupiers did in our city of Bucha.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

4. “Chapter II, Article 6, clearly states that a Member of the United Nations that persistently violates the principles of the Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. Although Russia is violating fundamental principles of the United Nations and the international legal order, it is still not being held to account at the global level. It still remains in United Nations agencies and even enjoys the privileges of the seat it occupies — the seat of a permanent member of the Security Council — which Russia occupies only thanks to the short-sightedness of politicians at the end of the Cold War. Russia does not have a right to take part in any discussions or voting with regard to the war in Ukraine, which is unprovoked and nothing but a colonialist venture on Russia’s part.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

5. “If any organization in any part of the world acted like Russia, which is killing Ukrainians, if any country killed peaceful civilians, that would definitely be recognized as terrorism. Such an organization would become an enemy of all humankind. Deeds that are punished at the level of ordinary criminals and criminal organizations cannot go unchecked at the State level if the State has become a terrorist. There are daily acts of terrorism, with no time off for weekends. They are working as terrorists every day. The Charter of the United Nations confers on the Security Council the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

6. “He was born after the beginning of this full-scale Russian invasion. His name is Volodymyr and his condition is very grave; he is now in intensive care. I emphasize that he is a baby. A 3-month-old baby. Today two more missiles hit the city of Sloviansk, in Donbas, the long-suffering and tormented region that Russia has subjected to humiliation since 2014. Just a few hours before my address to the Council today, two missiles hit the Odesa region. The city of Dnipro was also targeted, and one of the missiles destroyed a car service station — not a military station, but a regular car service station. I have a question for the Council: who here does not agree that that is terrorism?”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

7. “I want Council members to hear the names of the four women killed in the strike — Viktoriya, Iryna, Olena and Liudmyla. Kharkiv suffers brutal Russian strikes almost every day. Just yesterday 9 people were killed, 29 were wounded, 5 children among them. I want members to know their names: Hlib, 12 years old; Oleh, 8 years old; Mykhailo, 11 years old; Hryhoriy, 9 years old; and Artem, 10 years old. It was a Russian artillery strike on ordinary residential buildings. Today, at 5 o’clock in the morning, the Russian army also carried out a strike at Mykolaiv and the city of Ochakiv, in the Mykolaiv region. Three people were killed in Ochakiv: a 6-year-old girl, whose name was Yeva; a man named Mohammed, who was 76 years old; and a woman named Halyna, who was 50 years old. Among the wounded there is a baby who is only three months old.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

8. “If the Russian State claims that none of those victims suffered because of its missile strike, I suggest that the United Nations send either a Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations or a plenipotentiary commission to the site of that terrorist act in Kremenchuk, so that the United Nations can independently determine all of the information and conclude that it was indeed a Russian missile strike. Yesterday the Russian army also used rocket artillery on a queue of people lined up for water in the city of Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region. They were ordinary, peaceful people, none of whom were serving in the military — just people queueing for water. Eight of them were killed, including a 15-year-old boy named Danylo. The oldest victim was 68 years old.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

9. “On Sunday, 26 June, 10 more rockets were launched, one of which hit an ordinary residential building in the capital city of Kyiv, demolishing its three storeys. Another rocket exploded in the yard of an ordinary kindergarten. On Monday, 27 June, there was a missile strike in Kremenchuk. Those who carried out that strike could not have been unaware of the fact that they were directing a missile at an ordinary shopping centre — one of the many malls that can be found anywhere in the world. So far, 18 people are reported to have been killed, but unfortunately there may be more. Another 50 people are wounded, and dozens are missing. Fragments of bodies have been found, with people’s limbs, hands and feet ripped off.”

   2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

10. “President Zelenskyy (spoke in Ukrainian; English interpretation provided by the delegation): First of all, let me thank the Albanian presidency for promptly convening this meeting at Ukraine’s request and for the opportunity to address the Security Council. Unfortunately, the United Nations does not currently have a legal definition of the term “terrorist State” agreed on by all Member States. Nevertheless, the war that Russia is waging on Ukraine demonstrates not only the meaning of that concept, but also the urgent need to enshrine it legally at the level of the United Nations and to punish any terrorist State. Russia’s full-scale war of conquest against my country began 125 days ago, but let us take a look at recent events from just the past few days. On Saturday, 25 June, 62 Russian missiles struck our cities.”

    2022-06-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9080 (2022) · source

11. “That is the result of going unpunished. If possible, please watch this video, since it is not possible for everyone to come to our country and see it with their own eyes. I would therefore ask that they watch this brief fragment.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

12. “Either it can either remove Russia as an aggressor and an instigator of war so that it cannot block resolutions about its own aggression and its own war and then do all that it can to establish peace. The other option is for the Council to show how we can bring about reform or change and genuinely work for peace. If there is no alternative to the current working configuration and there is no other way, the next option would be to dissolve itself all together. I am convinced that the Council can avoid the third option. Ukraine needs peace. We need peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace. Finally, I would kindly urge that participants watch this short video. I ask that I be given one more minute of the Council’s time. The video is a testament to what has replaced the Council’s power because one single actor can abuse its rights.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

13. “It was the most intense time, but people needed assistance and, like other States, Ukraine came to their help. We took in people of different nationalities and faiths: Afghans, citizens of European countries, of the United States and of Canada alike. We did not distinguish as to who needed help, whether it was one of our own or someone else. We saved everyone. If every time that there was a need everyone in the world could be confident that help would come, the world would definitely be safer. Ukraine therefore has the moral right to propose a reform of the global security system. We have proved that we help others, not only in good times but in dark times too. We now need resolutions from the Security Council for peace in Ukraine. If it does not know how to take such decisions, it can do two things.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

14. “There can be no more exceptions or privileges. Everyone — all participants in international relations — must be equal regardless of economic strength, geographical area and individual ambitions. The power of peace, justice and security to which humankind has always aspired must prevail. Ukraine is ready to provide a seat for one of the main offices of the newly updated security system. Just as the Geneva office deals with human rights and the Nairobi office that deals with environmental protection, in Kyiv we can have a United Nations office that specializes in preventive measures to maintain peace. I would like to recall our peaceful mission in Afghanistan, where we Ukrainians evacuated more than 1,000 people from that country at our own expense.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

15. “We request that this be done in peaceful Kyiv in order to determine how we are going to reform the global security system, how we can establish a guarantee for the recognition of borders and the integrity of States and how we will fulfil the rule of international law. It is now absolutely clear that the objectives set in San Francisco in 1945, when the international organization for global security was established, have not been achieved, and it is impossible to achieve them without reforms. We must therefore do everything in our power to pass on to the next generation an effective United Nations that is able to respond preventively to security challenges and thereby guarantee peace, prevent aggression and force aggressors to peace, and have the determination and ability to punish if the principles of peace are violated.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

16. “Anyone who gave criminal orders and carried them out by killing our people will be brought before a tribunal, which should be similar to the Nuremberg trials. I would like to remind Russian diplomats that Von Ribbentrop did not escape punishment for crimes in the Second World War. I would like to remind the architects of Russia’s criminal policy that Adolf Eichmann did not go unpunished. None of the perpetrators will escape punishment — not one. However, the main thing today is that it is time to transform this system, the linchpin of which is the United Nations. To that end, we propose convening a global conference.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

17. “If tyranny had at least once received such a response to the war that it waged, it would have ceased to exist. If genuine peace had then been guaranteed, the world would clearly have changed. There would perhaps then not be a war in my country against our people — Ukrainian people and our citizens. However, the world watched and did not want to see the occupation of Crimea, the war against Georgia or the seizure of the entire Transnistria from Moldova and how Russia was preparing the basis for other conflicts and wars near its borders. How do we put an end to it? The Russian military and those who gave them orders must immediately be brought to justice for the war crimes committed in Ukrainian territory.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

18. “If this continues, countries will have to rely on the power of their own arms alone to ensure their security, and not on international law, not on international institutions. The United Nations can simply be closed. Are you ready to close the United Nations? Do you think that the time of international is over? If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately. The United Nations Charter must be restored immediately. The United Nations system must be reformed immediately, so that the veto is not a licence to kill. There must be fair representation in the Security Council of all regions of the world. The aggressor must be brought to peace immediately. Determination is needed. The chain of massacres in Syria and Somalia to Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya should have been stopped long ago, frankly.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

19. “The Russians have already deported hundreds of thousands of our citizens to their country. They have abducted more than 2,000 children, and they continue to do so. Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into silent slaves. The Russian military is openly looting the cities and villages that they have captured. This is widescale looting. They are stealing everything, starting with food and ending with gold earrings that are pulled out and covered with blood. We are dealing with a State that is turning the veto in the Security Council into a licence to kill, which undermines the whole global security architecture. It allows them to go unpunished, so they are destroying everything that they can.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

20. “That is what we are interested in today: maximum access for journalists, maximum cooperation with international institutions, the involvement of the International Criminal Court, complete truth and full accountability. I am convinced that every State Member of the United Nations should be interested in this. Why? In order to punish once for and for all those who consider themselves privileged and who believe that they can get away with anything. We must show all the other potential war criminals in the world how they will be punished. If the biggest one is punished, then all of them will be punished. Why has Russia come to Ukraine? I will tell you, Madam President. It is because the Russian leadership feels like the colonizers of ancient times. They need our wealth, our people.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

21. “I know perfectly well — and so do Council members — what the representatives of Russia will say in response to the accusations for these crimes — what they have said many times before, the most significant of which were what they said when their forces shot down the Malaysian Boeing aircraft over Donbas with their own weapons, or what they have said during the war in Syria. They will blame everyone just to justify their own actions. They will say that there are different versions of what happened, so it is impossible to establish which one of those versions is true. They will even allege that the bodies of those killed were thrown away and that all videos are staged. But it is 2022 today. We have conclusive evidence. There are satellite images. And we can conduct full and transparent investigations.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

22. “They are deliberately blocking cities, creating mass starvation, shooting columns of civilians on the road trying to escape from the zones where hostilities are conducted. They even deliberately blow-up shelters where civilians are hiding from air strikes. They are deliberately creating conditions in the temporarily occupied territories so that as many civilians as possible are killed there. The massacre in our city of Bucha is unfortunately only one of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for the past 41 days, and there are many more cities and similar places about which the world will has yet to learn the full truth. Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chornobyl, Okhtyrka, Borodyanka and dozens of other Ukrainian communities are similar to Bucha.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

23. “Geography may vary from place to place, but cruelty is the same everywhere, crimes are the same and accountability must be inevitable. I would like to remind Council members of Chapter I, Article 1, of the Charter of the United Nations. What is the purpose of our Organization? Its purpose is to maintain peace and make sure that peace is adhered to. And now the United Nations Charter is being violated, starting literally with Article 1. If that is the case, what is the point of all the other articles of the Charter? Today, as a result of Russia’s actions in our country, Ukraine, the most terrible war crimes we have seen since the end of the Second World War have taken place, and they are being committed by Russian troops who are deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities, turning them to ashes with artillery and air strikes.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

24. “They provoke a global food crisis that could lead to famine in Africa, Asia and other continents, which will surely end in large-scale political chaos in many countries, destroying their domestic security. Where, then, is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It is not there, despite the fact that there is a Security Council. Where, then, is peace? Where are those guarantees that the United Nations needs to uphold? It is obvious that this key global institution, which must ensure that all aggressors be brought back to peace, simply cannot work effectively. Now the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha while it occupied that city. But the world has yet to see what the Russians have done in other occupied cities and regions of our country.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

25. “Yet, in this case, it is being done by a member of the Security Council, destroying internal unity, borders and sovereign States and violating the rights of dozens of countries that are defending their right to self-determination. The aggressors are pursuing a consistent policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity. They inflame wars and deliberately wage them in such a way as to kill as many regular civilians as possible and destroy as many cities as possible, to leave the country where they deploy their troops in ruins and filled with mass graves. Council members have seen this. The aggressors support hatred at the State level and seek to export it to other countries through their system of propaganda and political corruption.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

26. “I am addressing the Security Council on behalf of the people who honour the memory of the deceased every single day, the memory of the civilians who died, shot in the back of the head, killed after being tortured. Some of them were shot on the streets, others were thrown into wells. These people died there in suffering. They were killed in their apartment houses, blown up by grenades. These civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for the Russians’ pleasure. They cut off limbs, slit their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressors did not hear what they wanted to hear from them. This is therefore no different from other terrorists such as Da’esh, who have occupied others’ territories elsewhere.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source

27. “President Zelenskyy (spoke in Ukrainian; English interpretation provided by the delegation): I thank the President of the Security Council for this opportunity. I am sure that all the representatives of the States Members of the United Nations will hear me today. Yesterday I returned from our city of Bucha, recently liberated from Russian troops, not far from Kyiv. There was not a single crime that they would not commit there. The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their homes when they were just trying to call to see if someone was alive. They killed entire families — adults and children — and they tried to burn the bodies.”

    2022-04-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9011 (2022) · source