President Volodymyr Zelensky implored the U.N. Security Council to take more robust action against Russia on Tuesday.
But the primary target of Zelensky’s speech was the West. Concluding his address, Zelensky submitted a video of bodies, including those of children, which Ukraine accused Russian forces of murdering. Many of the victims shown had their hands tied behind their backs, evincing their likely execution.
Some were charred beyond recognition. The victims included those from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, recently liberated from Russian forces. Russia denies responsibility for these war crimes and claims these people were shot after Russian forces left the area. But the evidence for Russian culpability has been independently documented by Bellingcat and the New York Times. Satellite photos show those bodies were there before Russia withdrew.
But Zelensky is not trying to persuade Russia. He knows nothing he says or shows will move Russia to end its war. He knows no evidence that other nations or nongovernmental organizations produce is likely to move Russia, either. Indeed, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya proved as much when he tried to present Zelensky’s testimony as a litany of lies.
The sad truth is that the deliberate murder of civilian populations is an accepted form of warfare for Russia.
Still, Zelensky knows he can influence two other key constituencies: Western politicians and their electorates. The rapid and graphic disclosure of Russian war crimes thus gives Zelensky the foreign information bow to complement his domestic military sword. Just as Ukrainian forces are relentlessly attacking Russian armored and mechanized units, Zelensky’s evidence seeks to ratchet up international sanctions against Moscow. What Zelensky wants is to translate the real suffering of his civilian population into the more comprehensive penalization of Russian interests.
And his strategy is succeeding.
Acting together, European nations have now expelled hundreds of Russian intelligence officers from embassies in their capitals this week. The European Union has also moved to ban Russian coal imports and says an oil import ban also looms. Ukraine is now pushing for greater restrictions on Russian shipping, shell companies (especially those linked to oligarchs) and more numerous and varied arms supplies. Zelensky also seeks sanctions against governments — such as China, India and Iran — that continue to deal with sanctioned Russian entities.
Packaging his charisma, his military’s underdog struggle, and his civilian population’s suffering, Zelensky is tugging at Western heartstrings. He knows that winning over Western populations means diluting the influence of those, such as in the Biden administration, who excessively fear Russian escalation in response to strengthened international support for Ukraine.
To end this war, Ukraine needs Putin to reconsider his offensive for fear of economic implosion and depleted political authority. The cracks in Putin’s regime are growing. Zelensky wants to get the West to help make them bigger. In that sense, Zelensky’s address to the United Nations represented a continuation of war by other means.
