NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
In a speech to the United Nations Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for action against Russia and referred to serious “war crimes”.
Afterwards, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen told Fox News that the United Nations can’t do much because nearly half of its Security Council’s permanent members — the states with veto power — are involved in “crimes against humanity.”
On The Story, host Martha MacCallum referenced the Biden administration’s wary language on war crimes after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan refused to call the Kremlin’s attacks on civilians “genocide.”
“We have seen atrocities, we have seen war crimes, we have yet to see a level of systematic killing of the Ukrainian people that approaches genocidal levels,” Sullivan, a former Hillary Clinton aide, said.
Thiessen said it was difficult to view footage of the civilian casualties, saying that while such crimes are “prosecutable,” the UN’s power has been emasculated.
“[G]Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, whatever you want to call them, these are atrocities and they are punishable,” he said.
SEXTON RIPS FORMER COLLEAGUES FOR REFUSING TO APOLOGIZE ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP
Zelenskyy speaks to UNSC ((AP Photo/John Minchillo))
“The problem is that the UN is completely incapable of addressing these atrocities for one simple reason: 40% of its voting members are actively involved in genocide and crimes against humanity.”
The United States, France, Russia, China and the United Kingdom are the five permanent members of the council, all of whom can veto resolutions, while several other rotating and elected members are Gabon, the UAE, Ireland, India and Ghana.
“In China – [a] Veto-wielding member – they have over a million Uyghurs in concentration camps in what the United States has declared genocide,” he said.
CLICK TO GET FOX NEWS APP
Biden’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“And now in Russia you have a leader involved in a massacre of civilians in Ukraine – that is at least a war crime and possibly genocide. You won’t be able to do anything about it.”
Thiessen compared Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian civilians to the Srebenica genocide in Yugoslavia in 1995, which spurred the UN to form an international criminal court to prosecute those guilty, adding that Russia and China had vetoed the creation of one on Ukraine aligned forum could insert.
“That’s why Zelenskyy said, throw Russia out of the Security Council or disband. And he’s absolutely right,” said Thiessen.