World turns its back on war criminal Putin

UN DIPLOMATS SNUB RUSSIAN AS ZELENSKY DEMANDS PROBE. WAR IN UKRAINE: MURDEROUS AIR ASSAULT SPARKS FURY

- BEN GLAZE, PIPPA CRERAR and RACHEL WEARMOUTH

DEFIANT Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday told supporters around the globe that invader Vladimir Putin's forces were war criminals killing "peaceful Ukrainian people".

Under-siege President Zelensky released a social media video in which he slammed Russia's murderous aerial assault on the city of Kharkiv.

It came on a day that dozens of UN diplomats in Geneva spoke for the world by turning their backs on Kremlin minister Sergei Lavrov and walking out during a video address from Moscow.

Mr Zelensky said: “Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery. It was clearly a war crime. There will be an international tribunal.

"No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people”

Claims that Russia is committing war crimes are mounting, with growing international calls for the attacks on Kharkiv to be investigated.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan said there was “reasonable basis” to believe war crimes had been committed and that he plans to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible”.

PM Boris Johnson called the scenes “absolutely sickening”. While visiting British troops in Estonia, he said: “It has that feel to me of an atrocity committed deliberately against a civilian centre."

He added: "I cannot think of a time in international affairs when the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, has been so obvious."

His Estonian counterpart Kaja Kallas warned: “What we are seeing in Ukraine is really very horrifying - to see what kind of steps they are taking, and now they are escalating this crisis." Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins said: “Putin's army is now starting to target civilians.