Watch: Russian And Ukrainian Spar Over Nazis In Fiery Exchange
Tuesday's meeting took a turn for the worse when Ukraine's Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya and Russia's Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya started accusing each other of being Nazis. The exchange heated up after Nebenzya accused Ukrainians of killing their own civilians to frame Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the international body on Tuesday as well, sharing video and images from Ukraine that showed the destruction and civilian casualties who had allegedly been brutalized and left behind as Russian forces retreated from the area surrounding the capital city of Kyiv.
Nebenzya claimed that there were “flagrant inconsistencies in events shown by Ukrainian and Western media,” saying that the bodies in the images were staged and that corpses visible in satellite imagery did not “match” those that appeared in the photos.
Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya makes claims to UN about footage from Bucha that is contradicted by satellite imagery confirmed by the BBC
He says there are "flagrant inconsistencies in events shown by Ukrainian and Western media"https://t.co/6KkuDEYLzs pic.twitter.com/RFZXnvWjgd
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 5, 2022
Nebenzya went on to concede that Russian troops had moved more slowly than initially planned, but he claimed that was only because they were taking great pains to avoid civilian casualties.
Kyslytsya quickly pointed to Nebenzya’s remarks from just a day earlier, when he reportedly dismissed reports of civilian deaths, saying that such things happened during times of war.
'You said that civilians are killed by your army… shall I play the video?' — Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya calls out Russia’s ambassador for shrugging off civilian deaths pic.twitter.com/USIaXCBmQC
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 5, 2022
Kyslytsya went on to call out his Russian counterpart, accusing him of hypocrisy and of lying to the international community.
“I would like to make my further statement in response to the hypocritical questions by Putin’s representative,” Kyslytsya continued. “After the video we saw with the shocking images from Bucha, Irpin … and other sites, He should ask these very questions to himself.”
“How have Russians got to the cruelty of Nazis? When have you started enjoying acting like Nazis, killing civilians, attempting to redraw internationally recognized borders, setting the task to finally resolve the Ukrainian issue, like Hitler attempted to resolve the Jewish issue?” he asked.
'When have you started enjoying acting like Nazis?' — Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya says to the Russian ambassador at the UN Security Council pic.twitter.com/sA9OP28u3w
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 5, 2022
Needless to say, progress in peace talks was not made on Tuesday...
