NEW YORK – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said today in front of the United Nations General Assembly that Russia’s goal with its invasion is to turn Ukraine into a weapon against the “international order based on rules.”
“Many seats in the General Assembly hall may become empty if Russia succeeds with its treachery and aggression,” Zelensky said, adding that Russia should be stopped.
In his first address to the United Nations, the Ukrainian president said the world must unite to defeat Russian aggression in Ukraine, CNN reported.
“It is clear, Russia’s attempt to take advantage of the food shortage on the global market in exchange for the recognition of some, if not all, conquered territories.” Russia launches food prices as a weapon. Their influence extends from the Atlantic coast of Africa to Southeast Asia,” said Zelenski.
He pointed out that Russia is trying to block the supply of gas and oil to European countries that depend on it, calling it an “energy weapon”.
Zelensky appealed to world leaders to curb Russia’s use of nuclear power plants.
He also stated that the war in Ukraine is the latest in a long list of Russian conflicts.
“Hatred against a nation never stops there.” Every decade, Russia starts a new war. Parts of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied. Russia has turned Syria into ruins. Russia almost swallowed Belarus. It clearly threatens Kazakhstan and other Baltic states,” Zelensky said.
He said he was working on a global peace summit, but did not say when it would be held.
In his speech, Zelensky condemned, as he stated, Russia’s wartime practice of forcibly taking 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 of others who were kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported,” he said.
The President of Ukraine pointed out that port cities and infrastructure are the subject of increasingly frequent Russian attacks, as well as that Ukraine is working on establishing land routes for the export of Ukrainian food and called on leaders to support these initiatives, reports Tanjug.
