‘History will remember who looked the other way’: Boris Johnson pleads with Russians in their own language to get online and seek out ‘the truth’ of Putin’s horrific war crimes in Ukraine
- The Prime Minister used a new video message to appeal directly to Russians
- Suggested they use VPN tech to get online and seek independent sources
- Speaking Russian he said: ‘Your president (is) accused of committing war crimes’
Boris Johnson tonight pleaded with Russians in their own language to seek out ‘the truth’ of Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine, saying: ‘History will remember who looked the other way.’
The Prime Minister used a new video message to appeal directly to those under Moscow rule to sidestep state propaganda that has denied massacres in cities like Bucha ever took place.
He suggested they use VPN technology to get online and seek independent sources about the brutal war raging in Ukraine, which domestic news services are still calling a ‘security operation’.
Speaking Russian in the subtitled clip posted on social media tonight he said: ‘Your president stands accused of committing war crimes. But I cannot believe he’s acting in your name.’
In English he added: ‘Those responsible will be held to account. And history will remember who looked the other way.’
It came as Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russia to ISIS for their ‘war crimes’ in Bucha during a fiery speech to the Security Council.
The Prime Minister used a new video message to appeal directly to those under Moscow rule to sidestep state propaganda that has denied massacres in cities like Bucha ever took place.
The Ukrainian president said atrocities have been carried out throughout the country, with women raped and killed in front of their families
Soldiers and investigators look at charred bodies lying on the ground in Bucha today where Russia has been accused of war crimes
Putin seeing red: Truss says sanctions turning Russian economy into Soviet-style mess
‘Crippling’ Western sanctions are returning the Russian economy to a mess last seen in the communist era, Liz Truss said today as she urged the allies to tighten the screw on the Putin regime.
The Foreign Secretary spoke after meeting the Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau and PM Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw as she pushes for ‘maximum’ sanctions.
Ms Truss is expected to push for harder action at a G7 meeting on Thursday, while Boris Johnson will encourage Germany to set a date for phasing out Russian gas when he meets Chancellor Scholz in Downing Street on Friday.
Mr Morawiecki has criticised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for focusing on the ‘voices of German businesses’ rather than the innocents slain in Ukraine.
The Foreign Secretary highlighted the impact of the economic constrictions carried out so far on the Russian economy, saying: ‘We have frozen over 350 billion US dollars (£266billion) of Putin’s war chest, making over 60 per cent of the regime’s 604 billion US dollars (£459 billion) foreign currency reserves unavailable.
‘Our co-ordinated sanctions are pushing the Russian economy back to the Soviet era.’
Meanwhile, senior Tories have urged the UK to drop the commitment that only ‘defensive’ weapons should be sent to Ukraine, after Volodymyr Zelensky asked for tanks and heavy artillery.
He slammed the UN body for failing to protect Ukraine, saying atrocities have been carried out throughout the country. Women have been raped and killed in front of their families, and people captured and deported to Russia and turned into ‘slaves’, he said in his blistering address.
He called out the Security Council for failing to provide any security, demanding Russia’s expulsion from the global body and reform to ensure no further illegal invasions in the future.
The Ukrainian president said: ‘So where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It’s not there. Although there is a Security Council and so where is the peace?
‘It is obvious that the key institution of the world which must ensure the coercion of any aggressor to peace simply cannot work effectively.’
He told of civilians being run over deliberately by tanks, people’s tongues being cut out and gang rapes being committed by invading Kremlin forces in ‘the most terrible war crimes’ since WWII, as he shared a harrowing video of burnt corpses and bodies stuffed in wells to the council.
People ‘were killed in their apartments, houses… civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure,’ Zelensky told the Council, including Moscow’s envoy.
The wartime leader said he feared Russians turning his people into ‘silent slaves’ as he said ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Ukrainians have been deported to Russia.
He also urged reform of the UN because the current system of global security has failed, and called on world leaders to act ‘immediately’ against Russia.
Russia’s envoy predictably dismissed the claims as ‘lies’ as he repeated unfounded Kremlin claims about Nazis running Ukraine and said allegations of atrocities have not been confirmed.
Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow places ‘on your conscience the unfounded accusations against the Russian military, which are not confirmed by any eye witnesses.’
He rejected allegations of war crimes, claiming there are ‘flagrant inconsistencies in events shown by Ukrainian and Western media’.
The diplomat repeated disproved claims that corpses found in Bucha were not there when Russia withdrew, saying: ‘The corpses in no way resemble those that could be lying on the street for three or four days.’
But satellite images shows corpses on the street nearly two weeks before the Russian departure.
Meanwhile UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges ever to international order.
Speaking to the Security Council in New York, the UN chief said there is mounting evidence of war crimes, rapes and sexual assaults by Putin’s forces.
Source: Read Full Article
