Ukrainian President addresses UN General Assembly. Zelensky warns of Russian plans to strike Ukrainian nuclear facilities Peace and Security
Speaking at the General Assembly debate, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the international community to support his proposed “Peace Formula.” He warned of a possible nuclear catastrophe if his country’s nuclear facilities were to be attacked, saying that Russia was harboring similar plans.
According to Zelensky, Russia will not be able to overcome the resistance of the Ukrainian people on the battlefield and is looking for other ways to break the spirit of the Ukrainians. In particular, by attacking energy facilities: “to date, the Russian Federation has destroyed all Ukrainian thermal power plants and most hydroelectric power plants.”
“This is how Putin is preparing for winter. He hopes to torment millions of Ukrainians. Ordinary families, women, children… ordinary cities. Putin wants to leave them in the dark and cold this winter so that Ukraine cannot withstand the suffering and surrenders,” the Ukrainian president added.
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From the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a “peace formula”
At the same time, he warned that Russia may not stop there and threatens to attack nuclear power plants. “On the night of March 4, 2022, I received one of the most horrific messages since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” Zelensky said. “I was told that Russian tanks were firing directly at the buildings of our Ukrainian nuclear power plant. The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. The largest in Europe. Six nuclear reactors. The Russian army stormed this facility as brutally as any other during this war. Without thinking about the consequences. Possibly catastrophic. It was one of the most terrible moments of the war, when no one could know how the Russian strikes on the nuclear facility would end, and everyone in Ukraine remembered Chernobyl.”
He recalled that the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant remains occupied by Russian troops and the risk of a nuclear incident remains. “This is the main source of radiation hazard in Europe, and possibly in the world,” the Ukrainian president said.
Peace Formula
“That is why the first point in the Peace Formula I presented concerns nuclear safety,” Zelensky emphasized. He recalled that back in the fall of 2022, he proposed a comprehensive strategy to end the war and ensure security. According to Zelensky, almost a hundred countries and international organizations supported the Peace Formula. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to truly and fairly resolve issues of war and peace in the UN, because too much in the Security Council depends on the veto. When the aggressor uses the veto, the UN is powerless to stop the war,” the president noted.
When some, Zelensky continued, propose alternative, half-hearted settlement plans – the so-called “sets of principles” – this not only ignores the reality and interests of Ukrainians, who suffer the most from the war, but also gives Putin political space to continue the war and put pressure on the world.
“Any parallel or alternative attempts to find peace are, in fact, attempts to achieve a lull, not an end to the war,” the Ukrainian president is convinced.
“More Land”
“Russia, a country more than twenty times larger than Ukraine in territory, still wants more land, more land – this is madness – and seizes it, day after day, wanting to destroy its neighbor. And Russia has found special friends for this – North Korea and Iran, which speaks for itself. Now every neighbor of Russia in Europe and Central Asia feels that war can come to them too, and just think – what losses await them in this case,” Zelensky said.