Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed world leaders for the first time Tuesday evening, live rather than via video link. At the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he called for increased global support for Ukraine.
He said that in addition to ammunition and military equipment, Russia also uses other weapons, such as blocking food supplies, which affects many countries, not just Ukraine.
He said Ukrainian port cities and infrastructure were increasingly under attack from Russia.
“It is clear that Russia is trying to create a food shortage on the world market in exchange for the recognition of part, if not all, of the conquered territories,” V. Zelensky said.
The president said Ukraine was working to establish land routes for the export of Ukrainian food products and called on leaders to support these initiatives.
In his speech, V. Zelenskis also touched on an extremely painful subject: the kidnapping of children and their transfer to Russia.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Zelensky condemned Russia’s wartime practice of forcibly removing Ukrainian children to Russia, calling it “genocide.”
“We know the names of tens of thousands of children and we have evidence of hundreds of thousands more who were kidnapped by Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine and then deported,” he said Tuesday.
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova over an alleged plot to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
“We are trying to get the kids home, but time is running out.” What will happen to them? What will happen to them? In Russia, these children are taught to hate Ukraine. And all ties with families are cut. And this is clearly genocide,” he said.
V. Zelensky assured that the war in Ukraine is the latest in a long list of Russian conflicts.
“Every decade, Russia starts a new war. Parts of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied. Russia has turned Syria into ruins,” he said.
“The goal of the current war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the rules-based international order,” V. Zelenskiy warned.
He said the world must come together to defeat Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“We must stop this. We must act in unison to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and energy on these challenges. Just as nuclear weapons are contained, so must the aggressor,” he said. declared V. Zelenskis during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s president announced he was organizing a global peace summit, but did not say when it would take place.
“While Russia is pushing the world towards the last war, Ukraine is doing everything so that no one in the world dares to attack any nation after Russian aggression,” he said.
Source: The Delfi
