Ukraine’s President Zelenksy compares Putin’s savage troops to ISIS monsters

UKRAINE’S president yesterday said there is “no difference” between Russia and IS as he reeled off an appalling list of war crimes.

Volodymyr Zelensky claimed savage soldiers ripped out victims’ tongues, crushed people under tanks “for pleasure” and raped and butchered mums in front of their children.

Zelensky stunned the UN Security Council with his claims in a videocall — accusing Vladimir Putin’s thugs of “the most terrible war crimes seen since the end of World War Two”, and calling for ­Nuremberg-style trials.

Zelensky said: “Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the road — just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs, slashed their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of children.

“Their tongues were pulled out because the aggressors did not hear what they wanted to hear.

“Civilians were shot in the back of the head after being tortured. Others were thrown down wells to die.”

He said: “This is no different from other terrorists such as Daesh (IS) who occupy some territories, and here it is done by a member of the Security Council.”

He backed up his claims with gruesome clips of burned and broken bodies, including a topless corpse in a well, a pile of dead children in a room and a line of dead men in a cellar with their hands tied behind their backs.

A “torture chamber” in Bucha after Russians retreated from near Kyiv was the tip of the iceberg, said Zelensky.

Pictures of corpses with their hands tied behind their backs sparked global outrage last week.

Last night Ukrainian officials said 150 to 300 people could be buried in a trench in a churchyard there.

Zelensky added: “This massacre 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 similar places where the world has yet to learn the truth.”

Moscow dismissed the reports as a “monstrous forgery” and blamed Ukraine for the killings.

But satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies appears to expose Russia’s lies. Pictures show many bodies in streets before Russia’s retreat.

Ukraine said at least 410 civilian bodies have been found in towns near Kyiv.

Zelensky said the United Nations was giving Russia a “right to sow death” with its Security Council veto.

He called for Russia to be expelled or the organisation should dissolve.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned worse was to come. He said: “When and if they [the Russians] withdraw and Ukrainian troops take over, I’m afraid they will see more mass graves, more atrocities and examples of war crimes.”

Zelensky also accused Russian forces of creating “mass starvation” through artillery and air strikes on cities.

He said Putin was bent on making Ukraine a country of “silent slaves”.

He insisted: “The Russian military must be brought to justice immediately.

“Anyone who has given criminal orders and carried out them by killing our people will be brought before the tribunal, which should be similar to the Nuremberg tribunals.”

Dame Barbara Woodward, the UK ambassador to the UN, described his address as “harrowing”.

Last night almost 150 Russian diplomats were ordered to leave Europe.