In a speech to the UN security council today, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of acting “no better than terrorists”.

He also urged Russia’s expulsion from the intergovernmental organisation, and accused the UN of granting the Kremlin a “right to kill” via its Security Council veto.

Virtually addressing the UNSC for the first time since Russia’s 24 February invasion, he detailed the scenes he witnessed yesterday o a visit to the town of Bucha near Kyiv, that he said had been “ recently liberated from Russian troops.”

“There is not a single crime that they would not commit. The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country.

“They shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone who is alive, they killed entire families, adults and children and they tried to burn the bodies,” he detailed.

“They pursued a consistent policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity, then inflame wars and deliberately lead them in such a way that to kill as many regular civilians.”

“Some of them were shot on the streets, others were thrown into the wells so they die. They are in suffering. They were killed in their apartments, houses blown up by grenades.

“The civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road just for their pleasure.”

“They cut off limbs, slashed their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children.

“Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressors did not want to hear from them.”

He told the council that Russia’s actions in the recent conflict had resulted in “the most terrible war crimes of all times we have seen since the end of World War Two”.

“But it is 2022. Now we have conclusive evidence. There are satellite images. We can conduct [a] full and transparent investigation,” he went on.

He also explained that details of abuses in areas that remain occupied by Russian forces are yet to be seen.