Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN excoriated Russia and its UN ambassador at a meeting on Thursday, declaring “There is no Purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.”
The angry words were said while the Ukraine ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya looked directly at his counterpart during a meeting of the UN Security Council early Thursday morning as part of a midnight session called to address the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kyslytsya called upon the Russian ambassador — who, incredibly, was acting as the Chair of the Security Council as Russia started its invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday night — to “relinquish his duties,” further calling upon Putin “to stop the aggression.
“As I said, I welcome the decision of some on this council to meet as soon as possible to condemn the aggression that you launched on my people. There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.”
Ukraine ambassador: “War criminals go to hell”
The blistering remarks were even more powerful as they were delivered in a controlled, professional tone by the veteran diplomat.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a televised address in Russian early on Feb. 24 local time, warning that a Russian invasion may result in tens of thousands of deaths.
“Today I initiated a phone call with the president of the Russian federation. The result was silence. Though the silence should be in Donbass. That’s why I want to address today the people of Russia. I am addressing you not as a president, I am addressing you as a citizen of Ukraine… Your leaders approved them to make a step forward, to the territory of another country. And this step can be the beginning of a big war on the European continent.”
“There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.”
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador directly addressed his Russian counterpart at conclusion of U.N. Security Council meeting. https://t.co/qS3qLvR7I0 pic.twitter.com/3n8CzGBLeq
— ABC News (@ABC) February 24, 2022
Zelenskyy continued, “We know for sure that we don’t need the war. Not a Cold War, not a hot war. Not a hybrid one. But if we’ll be attacked by the [enemy] troops, if they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack, but defend ourselves. And when you will be attacking us, you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces.”
Saying that the war is a disaster, he went on to state that “this disaster has a high price,” adding that Ukraine is not posing a threat to Russia.
He acknowledged that Ukraine was “ready to have talks with anybody, including you, in any format, on any platform.”
“Do Russians want the war? I would like to know the answer. But the answer depends only on you, citizens of the Russian Federation.”
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