While United Nations spokespeople decry a "complete meltdown of humanity" in Aleppo and aid workers struggle to reach the thousands of civilians who've been trapped in the crosshairs of the civil war, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power spoke out directly on Tuesday.

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At a UN Security Council Emergency Briefing on Syria, Power didn't hold back in her criticism of the Syrian regime and its allies, including Russia, which is represented on the Council: "[Y]ou bear responsibility for these atrocities," she said. "Denying or obfuscating the facts, as you will do today—saying up is down, black is white—will not absolve you. When one day there is a full accounting of the horrors committed in this assault of Aleppo—and that day will come, sooner or later—you will not be able to say you did not know what was happening. You will not be able to say you were not involved. We all know what is happening. And we all know you are involved."

Power, who published a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on how the U.S. responds to genocides around the world, continued: "Aleppo will join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later. Halabja, Rwanda, Srebrenica, and, now, Aleppo." She went on to accuse the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran of trapping "tens of thousands of civilians in your ever-tightening noose."

"Are you truly incapable of shame?" she demanded. "Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin?"

From: ELLE US