Zelenskyy tells the United Nations Security Council to punish Russia or 'dissolve yourself altogether'

insider.com: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy railed against the United Nations' ineffectiveness to stop Russia's ongoing war in a speech to the Security Council on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that he sees two options for the group following the discovery of mass civilian killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha: punish Russia or dissolve itself.

The Ukrainian leader urged the UNSC to remove Russia, which is a permanent member of the council, "as an aggressor and a source of war so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression."

Or, he said, the UN's security body can "dissolve" and reform entirely.

"If there is no alternative and no option, then the next option would be dissolve yourself altogether," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy spoke to the council days after hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were found killed in Bucha after Russian forces retreated from the Kyiv region. Many corpses were found in partially excavated mass graves while others were found lying in the streets, according to media reports.

Zelenskyy used his speech on Tuesday to call for a reform of the world's security system.

In order to help guarantee peace moving forward, Zelenskyy said, "We must do everything in our power to pass on to the next generation an effective UN with the ability to respond preventively to security challenges."

Russia is one of five permanent members on the UNSC, joined by the four other victors of World War II — the US, UK, China, and France. All of the permanent members have veto power.

Shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, Russia vetoed a resolution condemning its unprovoked war and calling for the immediate removal of its troops.

Experts have said Russia's disregard for international norms has threatened to crumble the global system that was built post-World War II and designed to prevent future conflicts. Zelenskyy echoed these sentiments in his impassioned remarks to the UNSC on Tuesday.

"We're dealing with a state that's turning the veto [of] the UN Security Council into the right to die. This undermines the whole architecture of global security and allows them to go unpunished," Zelenskyy said. "They're destroying everything that they can."

Zelenskyy accused the UN of effectively ignoring past instances of Russian aggression, including the 2008 invasion of Georgia and 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The Ukrainian president said Russia's actions in Ukraine were "no different" from atrocities committed by terror groups like ISIS, showing the UNSC harrowing footage of dead Ukrainians. The video ended with the word "Stop Russian Aggression."

Zelenskyy said if Russia is able to continue its aggression in Ukraine unchecked then it will signal to countries that they must rely "only on the power their own arms to ensure their security and not on international law."

"Are you ready to close the UN? Do you think that the time of international law is gone? If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately...The UN system must be reformed immediately," Zelenskyy went on to say.