Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations on Tuesday that Russia could only be forced into a peace deal, as he vowed not to negotiate on Moscow’s terms to end the war.
Addressing a special session of the UN Security Council in the presence of Russia’s representative, Zelensky also joined the US in pressuring Iran and North Korea for their alleged military support to Russia.
Zelensky, who is on a visit to present his “victory plan” for Ukraine, questioned the sincerity of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has suggested freezing the control lines.
“We know that some people in the world want to talk to Putin to possibly hear that they are upset that we are exercising our right to protect our people,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky, dressed in his distinctive military uniform, called such ideas “madness.”
He said, “Russia can only be forced to peace, and that is what is necessary – to force Russia to peace.”
Zelenskyy said Russia’s two-year-old aggression must end on the basis of the U.N. Charter, which enshrines the sovereignty of member states.
“One day, in this hall, it will certainly be said that Russia’s war against Ukraine is over — not stopped, not forgotten, but truly over,” Zelenskyy said.
“This will not happen because someone is tired of the war, nor because someone has done some business with Putin. Russia’s war against Ukraine will end because the UN Charter will work.”
Zelensky will meet at the White House on Thursday with President Joe Biden, who addressed the United Nations urging international support for Ukraine until victory.
Zelensky’s political stance comes weeks before the US election, in which Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called billions of dollars in US aid to Ukraine a waste and praised Putin.
– China calls for efforts for peace –
Zelensky again promised a second “peace summit” and said he was inviting both China and India, major powers that have refused to go along with Western sanctions on Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing the Security Council, welcomed the increased push for diplomacy.
“Dialogue and compromise are the only viable way to resolve the Ukraine crisis. If peace talks cannot be initiated day-by-day, wrong decisions and miscalculations will increase, making the crisis even bigger,” he said.
He stressed that China is committed to peace, saying: “China is not the creator of the Ukraine crisis, nor are we involved in it.”
But he spoke before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who again accused China of boosting Russia’s military strength through exports of items nominally for civilian use, including advanced electronics and machine tools.
Blinken rejected suggestions that his criticism of the United States’ arms shipment to Ukraine was hypocritical.
“There’s a big difference. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim,” Blinken said.
He called on the United Nations to take action against both North Korea, which has stepped up military supplies to Russia, and Iran, which U.S. intelligence agencies recently accused of sending short-range missiles to Russia.
“Support from Tehran and Pyongyang is enabling Putin to inflict genocide, suffering, and devastation on innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children,” Blinken said.
Zelenskyy said of the two countries: “Russia has no legitimate reason — none at all — to have Iran and North Korea as de facto allies in its criminal war in Europe, where their weapons are killing us and Ukrainians.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-declared moderate in the cleric-run state, denied on Monday that Tehran had sent the arms, and criticised Moscow for its “aggression”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)