In his speech at the debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky named the principles on which Russia’s war against Ukraine should be ended.
That is according to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
“We must restore nuclear safety. Energy must stop being used as a weapon. We must ensure food security. We need to bring home all our captured soldiers and civilians forcibly deported to Russia. We must uphold the UN Charter and guarantee our right – Ukraine’s right – to territorial integrity and sovereignty, just as we do for any other nation,” he said.
According to him, it is necessary to withdraw the Russian occupiers, which will bring an end to the hostilities in Ukraine, and to hold those responsible for war crimes to account.
“We need to prevent ecocide and stop the destruction of nature caused by the war. And we must not allow a second or third phase of this Russian invasion,” he added.
Zelensky recalled that two years ago, he proposed a comprehensive strategy to end the war – and to ensure security.
According to him, Ukraine wants to end this war more than anyone in the world.
“Russia is a country more than 20 times larger than Ukraine in territory and it still wants even more land, more land – which is insane – and is seizing it, day by day, while wanting to destroy its neighbor. And Russia found very special buddies for that – North Korea and Iran, a telling choice of friends,” Zelensky said.
Now every neighbor of Russia in Europe and Central Asia feels that the war could come to them as well, he added.
Zelensky thanked nearly one hundred nations and international organizations that have supported the Peace Formula.
He said he was glad that the first Peace Summit was so reminding of the UN General Assembly – everyone was equal.
“That is what Russia hates the most and cannot control, that’s why Russia says the Peace Formula doesn’t suit it,” he said.
He emphasized that he had already met with leaders from India and Guatemala, Japan and Italy, Türkiye and Finland, Canada and Paraguay, Slovenia, Germany and others.
“These are different, absolutely, parts of the world and various political ways of life, but they share the same understanding – peace is needed, and it must be a real, just peace,” Zelensky said.
He noted that “when some propose alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans – so-called ‘sets of principles’ – it not only ignores the interests and suffering of Ukrainians, who are affected by the war the most, it not only ignores reality, but also gives Putin the political space to continue the war and pressure the world to bring more nations under control.”
According to Zelensky, any parallel or alternative attempts to seek peace are, in fact, efforts to achieve a lull instead of an end to the war.
“And maybe somebody wants a Nobel Prize for their political biography for frozen truce instead of real peace, but the only prizes Putin will give you in return are more suffering and disasters,” Zelensky said.
If someone in the world seeks alternatives to any of these points or tries to ignore any of them, it likely means they themselves want to do a part of what Putin is doing – the point they ignore reveals the desire they are hiding, Zelensky said.
According to the president, when “the Chinese-Brazilian duo tries to grow into a choir 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 true interest?”
“Everyone must understand – you won’t boost your power at Ukraine’s expense,” he added.
The president stressed that the world has already been through colonial wars and conspiracies of great powers at the expense of those who are smaller.
“Ukrainians will never accept, will never accept why anyone in the world believes that such a brutal colonial past, which suits no one today, can be imposed on Ukraine now instead of a normal, peaceful life,” Zelensky said.
Photo: President’s Office
Source: Zelensky names principles on which war should be ended
