Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy implored world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to stand united against Russia’s invasion.
In an impassioned speech, he said Moscow had to be pushed back so the world could turn to solving pressing global challenges.
Mr Zelenskiy drew applause as he took his place at the lectern in New York, sporting a signature olive green shirt for his first in-person appearance at the annual general assembly since Russia invaded his country last year.
Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country’s plight among many countries, especially in the Global South, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion.
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“Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation,” he said. “Weaponisation must be restrained, war crimes must be punished, deported people must come back home and the occupier must return to their own land.
“We must be united to make it - and we’ll do it.”
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He accused Russia of manipulating global food markets to seek international recognition of ownership of land it seized from Kyiv.
Mr Zelenskiy said Ukraine and its partners were trying to work around the Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, but he had bitter criticism for Ukraine’s neighbours who have periodically blocked the export of Ukrainian produce westwards for fear it would compete with domestic output and lower prices.
He said “some of our friends in Europe”, whose expressions of solidarity were “political theatre” were, by restricting imports from Ukraine, “helping set the stage for a Moscow actor”. He said that Russia, having long used oil and gas as a weapon was now weaponising nuclear energy, pointing to the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which he said Moscow had turned into a potential “dirty bomb”.
The goal of the Russian military campaign, the president said, was to turn Ukraine, its people, land and resources “into a weapon against you, against the international rules based order”.
If the Russians succeeded, he warned, “many seats in the general assembly hall may become empty”.
He also said Moscow was committing genocide by kidnapping Ukrainian children.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin on suspicion of illegally deporting children from Ukraine. The Kremlin rejects the accusations and the court’s jurisdiction.
“Never before has mass kidnapping and deportation become a part of the government policy. Not until now,” Mr Zelenskiy said, saying that the Ukrainian government knew of the names of tens of thousands of abducted children and had “evidence of hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine” and later deported.
“Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide when hatred is weaponised against one nation,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
Last year Mr Zelenskiy presented a 10-point plan that included restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, and the restoration of Ukraine’s state borders.
He said he was now working towards a peace summit based on the plan. “Tomorrow I will present the details at a special meeting of the UN security council.”
He said all leaders “who do not tolerate any aggression” would be invited to the summit. He did not say when or where the meeting would be held, but he has previously expressed the hope it would happen by autumn this year.
The speech was watched from the Russian seats in the chamber by Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy.
In a nod to the Global South, a term that refers to a number of technically and socially less-developed countries, largely located in Africa and Asia, Mr Zelenskiy spoke about the worsening climate crisis and natural disasters, mentioning the recent earthquake in Morocco and floods in Libya.
“We have to stop it. We must act united to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and energy on addressing these challenges,” he told the assembly. - Reuters/Guardian