Zelensky calls on UN to visit site of Ukraine mall strike
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the United Nations to visit the site of a missile strike on a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk, as he addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Speaking by video from Kyiv and clad in a trademark olive green shirt, the Ukrainian leader also called on members of the Council -- including Russia -- to hold a minute's silence for those killed in the war so far.
"I suggest the United Nations send either a special representative, or the secretary-general of the United Nations... so the UN could independently find out information and see that this indeed was a Russian missile strike," Zelensky said of Monday's attack, in which at least 18 people were killed.
And he asked the UN to legally define the term "terrorist state," arguing that Moscow's invasion of his country on February 24 demonstrates "the urgent necessity to enshrine it, literally, at the level of the United Nations and punish any terrorist state."
Zelensky spoke at the emergency session of the Security Council after Monday's missile strike set off a blaze inside the crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk.
In addition to the 18 confirmed dead, dozens were injured and many are still missing, authorities have said.
The UN has now recorded more than 10,600 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 4,731 deaths.
