Zelenskyy warns UN of more discoveries of alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while speaking to the United Nations Security Council Tuesday, accused Russia of the worst war crimes since World War II.

He said that the Russian army had tortured and killed civilians. "They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies,” he said while calling for those responsible to be tried for war crimes.

Graphic images appearing to show the atrocities Zelenskyy detailed in Bucha and other cities have led to a worldwide outcry.

Associated Press journalists in Bucha have counted dozens of corpses in civilian clothes and interviewed Ukrainians who told of witnessing atrocities. Also, high-resolution satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that many of the bodies had been lying in the open for weeks, during the time that Russian forces were in the town.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest from the Pentagon on 'Special Report.'

The United States will send an additional $100 million worth of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine as the country's war with Russia continues, Fox News has learned.

"Today, the Biden Administration authorized an additional Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued at up to an additional $100 million to meet an urgent Ukrainian need for additional Javelin anti-armor systems, which the United States has been providing to Ukraine and they have been using so effectively to defend their country," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"I have authorized, pursuant to a delegation from the President earlier today, the immediate drawdown of security assistance valued at up to $100 million to meet Ukraine’s urgent need for additional anti-armor systems," Blinken said. "This authorization is the sixth drawdown of arms, equipment, and supplies from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Tuesday that it is not in the "interest" of the United States to go to "war with Russia."

Psaki's remarks came after she was asked by CBS News reporter Steven Portnoy how the atrocities and images out of Ukraine do not "compel" a military response led by the U.S. and its partners.

"I think what the president's objective is and his responsibility is to make decisions that are in the interest of the United States and the national security of the United States and the American people," Psaki said. "And that is not to go to war with Russia."

"It is to do everything in our power to hold them accountable, to support efforts through international systems to do exactly that, and to provide military assistance, security assistance and support to the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government. That's exactly what we're doing."

"It is not in our interest or in the interest of the American people for us to be in a war with Russia," she concluded.

The U.S. State Department is investigating reports of an attack in Ukraine involving chemicals.

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian military forces of hitting a storage tank filled with nitric acid in the city of Rubizhne, located in the Luhansk region.

“We are aware of reports of this incident, and are looking into it as we await further details," the State Department told Fox News. "We are concerned about the harm to anyone in the vicinity that a nitric acid leak may cause.  it is clear Russia’s forces continue to bombard cities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine and commit terrible acts of violence."

“Unclear as to the scope of the effects and unclear at this time if the strike was part of a strategy to weaponize the stored chemicals," a senior US defense official told Fox News. "But obviously this is cause for concern and we are monitoring.”

Additionally, a government expert tells Fox News that "if the tank held fuming nitric acid and the intent was to release the toxic nitrogen dioxide gas whose inhalation effects are similar to phosgene or chlorine, then it might be called a Chemical Weapons event."

President Biden has previously stated that the United States would respond to a chemical weapons attack.

Fox News' Gillian Turner and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told "America Reports" Tuesday the United States needs to accelerate aid to Ukraine to defeat Russia because the global implications of Putin's aggression extend beyond the two opposing countries.

"I think the most immediate thing that we can do, we have to do, is we have to stop this war," Hagel said. "And it cannot be seen as a victory in any way for Putin. That means the Ukrainians need to go on the offensive and we need to help them with that. We need to upgrade the weaponry, we need to upgrade everything that we are doing, including sanctions, tougher, tougher sanctions to really strangle Putin."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations highlighted Tuesday what she deemed as "credible reports" about Russian forces abducting tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, confiscating passports and interrogating people in so-called "filtration camps" and then forcibly relocating them to Russia.

The remarks from U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking remotely from Ukraine, addressed the U.N. Security Council. He called for Russian troops to be brought up on war crime charges for atrocities uncovered in Bucha and around Kyiv before a tribunal similar to the one set up at Nuremberg after World War II .

"We've all seen the gruesome photos, lifeless bodies lying in the streets, apparently summarily executed, their hands tied behind their backs," Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to images surfacing from the Bucha massacre after Russian forces pulled back from the capital region in recent days.

For more on this story: US calls out 'credible reports' of Putin's forces herding Ukrainians to 'filtration camps,' then into Russia

Vice President of foreign policy at Heritage Foundation, James Carafano, criticized the Biden administration for its handling of Ukraine, accusing it of "cheerleading along with the rest of the world" as millions flee.

The retired Army lieutenant colonel argued "this kind of leadership" is not what the world needs as Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine rages on.

Officials are warning that Russian forces are preparing an offensive in Ukraine's southeast.

While Ukraine has pushed back against Russian troops in recent days – taking back territory, including areas around the capital city of Kyiv – the head of NATO warned that Russia is regrouping and plans to deploy soldiers in eastern and southern Ukraine for a "crucial phase of the war."

"Moscow is not giving up its ambitions in Ukraine," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. "We expect a further push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and to create a land bridge" to the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas have been fighting Ukrainian troops for the last eight years.

For more on this story: Russia preparing offensive in southern, eastern Ukraine, officials say

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has released a video message Tuesday to Russians in which he tells them that Vladimir Putin is being accused of war crimes.

“The Russian people deserve the truth, you deserve the facts," Johnson said in Russian, later adding that "your president stands accused of committing war crimes."

“The atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha, Irpin and elsewhere in Ukraine have horrified the world," Johnson also said. 

“All you need is VPN connection to access independent information from anywhere in the world. And when you find the truth, share it," he added. "Those responsible will be held to account."

Vasily Nebenzya, the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, claimed to the Security Council Tuesday that reports of alleged atrocities carried out by the Russian military in places like Bucha are “blatant criminally-staged events with Ukrainian civilians who were killed by their own radicals.” 

In a message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nebenzya said “it turns out that we shouldn’t have withdrawn, I’m talking about Bucha first and foremost.  

“I understand that you saw corpses and heard testimonials but you only saw what they showed you,” he continued. “You couldn’t ignore the flagrant inconsistencies in the version of events which are being promoted by Ukrainian and western media.” 

Nebenzya also said in his message to Zelenskyy that “I really hope that you will find a solution to the situation because it depends only on you.” 

He said Russia “came to Ukraine not to conquer lands, we came to bring the long-awaited peace to the blood-soaked land of Donbas.  

“Not a truce, but a true, lasting peace and for this we need to root out the cruelty which I mentioned. We need to cut out the malignant Nazi tumor that is consuming Ukraine and would in time begin to consume Russia,” he also said. “And we will achieve that goal I hope sooner rather than later because there is no other outcome.” 

Nebenzya also claimed that the Russian military is “not shooting civilian targets in order to save as many civilians as possible -- this is precisely why we are not advancing as fast as many expected.  

“We are not acting like Americans and their allies in Iraq and Syria, razing entire cities to the ground,” he said. “They had no pity for them but we felt great pity because these are people who are close to us." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that “we need decisions from the Security Council for peace in Ukraine.  

“If you don’t know how to make this decision, you can do two things, either remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression and its own war. And then do everything that we can do to establish peace,” he said. “Or the other option is to show how we can reform or change and work for peace.” 

“If there is no alternative, the next option would be to dissolve yourself altogether if there is nothing that you can do besides conversation,” Zelenskyy added. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he is proposing a future conference in Kyiv “in order to determine how we can reform the world security system, how do we establish guarantee of recognition of borders and integrity of states and countries, how we will assert the rule of international law.” 

“We must do everything in our power to pass onto the next generation an effective U.N. with the ability to respond preventively to security challenges and thus guarantee peace, prevent aggression and force aggressors to peace,” he also said.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council that “the massacre in our city of Bucha is only one – unfortunately – of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for the past 41 days. And there are many more cities, similar places, where the world has yet to learn the full truth.” 

“They will blame everyone just to justify their own actions, they will say that there are various different versions and it is impossible to establish which one of those versions is truth,” he added. “They will even say that the bodies of those killed were allegedly thrown away... but it is 2022 and now we have conclusive evidence, there are satellite images.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday after visiting Bucha that the Russian military “killed entire families – adults and children – and they tried to burn the bodies.” 

“Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure,” he continued. “They cut limbs, slashed their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children.” 

“Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them,” Zelenskyy also said. “This is no different from other terrorists such as ISIS and here it is done by a member of the United Nation’s Security Council.” 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday that the ongoing war in Ukraine has "led to a senseless loss of life, massive devastation in urban centers, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

"I will never forget the horrifying images of civilians killed in Bucha, and I immediately called for an independent investigation to guarantee effective accountability," he said. "And I'm also deeply shocked by the personal testimony of rapes and sexual violence that now are emerging."

Guterres said the war also "has disrupted supply chains and increased the cost of transportation, putting even more pressure on the developing world. 

"Many developing countries are already on the verge of that collapse due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lack of adequate liquidity and debt relief stemming ultimately from the unfair nature of our global economic and financial system," he added. "For all these reasons, it is more urgent by the day to silence the guns."

Click here to watch on Fox News.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the world is now seeing the horror that has been left behind in places like Bucha following the withdrawal of Russian troops there.

Blinken said Russia is running a "deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities."