President Zelenskiy Calls Russian Forces ‘Butchers’

• Says hundreds of Ukrainians ‘killed, tortured, executed’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed Russian forces as “murderers”, “torturers” and “rapists” after hundreds of bodies of Ukrainian civilians were found on the streets of towns surrounding Kyiv.

He also vowed to investigate and prosecute all Russian “crimes” in Ukraine, saying he had created a “special mechanism” to do so.

In a late-night address to his people, the Ukrainian leader said: “Hundreds of people were killed. Tortured, executed civilians. Corpses on the streets …

“Concentrated evil has come to our land. Murderers. Torturers. Rapists. Looters. Who call themselves the army. And who deserve only death after what they did.”

Also addressing the mothers of Russian soldiers, Zelenskiy added: “I want every mother of every Russian soldier to see the bodies of the killed people in Bucha, in Irpin, in Hostomel. What did they do? Why were they killed? What did the man who was riding his bicycle down the street do?

“Why were ordinary civilians in an ordinary peaceful city tortured to death? Why were women strangled after their earrings were ripped out of their ears? How could women be raped and killed in front of children?

How could their corpses be desecrated even after death? Why did they crush the bodies of people with tanks? What did the Ukrainian city of Bucha do to your Russia? How did all this become possible?

Russian mothers! Even if you raised looters, how did they also become butchers? … They killed deliberately and with pleasure.”

Zelenskiy also placed the blame on Russian officials saying; “I want all the leaders of the Russian Federation to see how their orders are being fulfilled. Such orders. Such a fulfilment. And joint responsibility. For these murders, for these tortures, for these arms torn off by explosions that lie on the streets. For shots in the back of the head of tied people.

“This is how the Russian state will now be perceived. This is your image. Your culture and human appearance perished together with the Ukrainian men and women to whom you came.”