Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Wednesday before the United Nations General Assembly, where he defended his terms for ending Vladimir Putin’s invasion and asked the rest of the world to support his plan for a real and just peace, criticizing other proposals, such as those presented by China and Brazil.
Zelensky, who began his speech by recalling the day Russian troops attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, reiterated his usual statement that “there can be no just peace without Ukraine.” The president stressed that the “peace formula,” the decalogue that includes Kiev’s conditions for ending the war, is “effective and comprehensive.” “What part of the peace formula is unacceptable to those who respect the UN Charter?” “If someone is looking for alternatives to these proposals or trying to reject them, most likely they want to be part of what Putin is doing,” he said.
In this sense, Zelensky said that other proposals presented by other countries to end the war “not only ignore the suffering of Ukrainians due to the war”, but “neglect reality and give Putin the political space to continue the war and push to control more nations.
“The peace formula has already existed for two years, and maybe someone wants a Nobel Prize for his political biography, for (a) frozen truce, instead of real peace, but the only prizes Putin will give him in return are more suffering and disasters,” he said.
Throughout the speech, he referred to the proposal put forward by China and Brazil last May. “When the Sino-Brazilian duo tries to become a chorus of voices, with someone in Europe, with someone in Africa saying something alternative to a full and just peace, the question arises: what is the real interest?” “They will not increase their power at the expense of Ukraine,” he continued.
China and Brazil have presented a six-point plan that calls for de-escalation and the resumption of dialogue between kyiv and Moscow, but does not contain any reference to Ukraine’s territorial integrity or the withdrawal of Russian troops, key elements for kyiv. Zelensky has already expressed frustration with the proposal, which he called “destructive.”
In his speech at the same podium on Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva referred to his joint proposal with Beijing. “Creating the conditions for the resumption of direct dialogue between the parties is crucial at this time. “This is the message of the six-point agreement proposed by China and Brazil to establish a process of dialogue and end hostilities.”
The Ukrainian leader recalled Moscow’s attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of winter. “While Russia cannot overcome the resistance of our people on the battlefield, Putin is looking for other ways to break the Ukrainian spirit,” he noted.
Two and a half years after Russia attacked Ukraine, Zelensky again criticized the UN’s “inability” to “solve the war fairly or achieve peace because it depends too much on the Security Council and its veto power,” which Russia boasts of four other countries. The Ukrainian president also called for those responsible for war crimes to be held accountable and to “prevent ecocide.”
“We must say clearly that the war is over. This is the formula for peace,” he added. “I want peace for my people, a genuine and just peace, and I ask for your support. I ask you not to divide the world, to be united nations and then peace will come,” he concluded.
Zelensky is in New York as Ukrainian troops continue their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region while trying to contain the Russian military’s advance to the east. “Ukrainians are being injured and killed every day. Even today, Russian bombs fell on apartment buildings and a bakery factory was targeted. “Russia finds it threatening to be able to make bread,” Zelensky said at the Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian president’s main goal is to get the United States to give the green light to lift restrictions on the use of Western-made long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia. While Zelensky was speaking at the UN, Putin was scheduled to meet with the Russian Security Council on nuclear deterrence to assess Moscow’s response to Ukraine’s demand that the United States lift the limit on Western long-range missiles.
This Thursday, the Ukrainian leader plans to meet with US President Joe Biden in Washington to present his “victory plan”, the details of which are still unknown.
As winter approaches and Russia attempts to destroy Ukraine’s power grid, Zelesnki insisted that this fall would be “crucial” for the war. In fact, the so-called “victory plan” has the stated goal of strengthening kyiv’s position in the face of a hypothetical negotiation with Russia that the Ukrainian administration hopes to begin before the end of the year at a second international summit promoted by Zelensky.
