Volodomyr Zelensky has said that the post-war model for Ukraine will be a 'Big Israel' with a huge emphasis on security and defence and troops policing public spaces even after the war with Russia ends.
In a briefing to the Ukrainian people on Tuesday, Zelensky said: "We will become a ‘big Israel’ with its own face. We will not be surprised if we have representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in cinemas, supermarkets, and people with weapons. I am confident that the question of security will be issue number one for the next ten years. I am sure of it.”
He added: “Israelis have lived surrounded by enemies for all of their history and Ukraine will be doing the same.”
The Ukrainian president also accused Russia of perpetrating the worst war crimes since World War Two in an impassioned address to the UN.
Addressing the meeting convened by Britain, Zelensky said of the Russian military: "They killed entire families, adults, and children and they tried to burn the bodies.
"Women were raped and killed in front of their children" and "their tongues pulled out".
Saying that Russian troops carried out unspeakable crimes on Ukrainians, he compared the country's actions to that of Islamic State terrorists but "done by a member of the UN Security Council" and called for a new war crimes trial in the style of Nuremberg to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Invoking the infamous post-World War Two trials and the subsequent trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel, Zelensky said: “I’d like to remind the Russian delegation that Ribbentrop didn’t escape justice after the war…neither did Eichmann.”
He also called into question the effectiveness of the UN saying: "If you don't know how to make a decision...you can dissolve yourself altogether, if you can do nothing but talk."
In recent days, news of Russian war crimes has become widespread, especially in the town of Bucha where pictures of macabre scenes of dead bodies have been published and verified by major news organisations.
The Ukrainian leader visited the towns retaken by the Ukrainian military, describing the carnage he witnessed, the Ukrainian president said: "The Russian military are looting openly the cities and villages they have captured. They are stealing everything starting with food ending with gold earrings that are pulled out and covered in blood."
Earlier this week, Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Azman visited the sites of some of the atrocities and spoke of his heartbreak at seeing the carnage for himself.
Chief Rabbi Azman visits Irpin and Bucha.
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) April 5, 2022
“Traces of mass war crimes of the Russian army were discovered with our own eyes,” he wrote on Telegram. “My heart breaks at what I see.” pic.twitter.com/Z1mzKzJ5cU
