Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing genocide against his country’s people and he called for Russia’s nuclear disarmament during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is clearly a genocide,” Zelensky said. “When hatred is weaponized against one nation it never stops there. Each decade Russia starts a new war.”
As evidence, Zelensky pointed to Russian military interventions in Moldova, Georgia, and Syria, and Moscow’s threats against the Baltic states.
Entire towns and villages in Ukraine have been “wiped out by Russian artillery,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian government has the names of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russia, he said. Ukraine is working to get the children back home, he said, but while in Russia the children are being taught to hate Ukraine.
“We have to stop it,” he said, adding “the aggressor must be restrained.”
“The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” he warned.
Zelensky accused Russia of attempting to “weaponize a food shortage” with attacks on grain exports. He also accused Russia of the “weaponization of energy,” and said Moscow has turned nuclear power plants into “nuclear dirty bombs,” citing the country’s attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant.
“History shows that Russia deserved nuclear disarmament the most back in the 1990s. And Russia deserves it now,” Zelensky said. “Terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons.”
Zelensky touted Ukraine’s proposed ten-point settlement program, which demands a full Russian withdrawal and payment of reparations. He called for a summit with other nations where the program would be on the agenda.
“While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation,” he said. “We must be united to make it, and we will do it.”
Earlier on Tuesday, President Joe Biden called for world nations to stand by Ukraine during an address before the General Assembly. He said Russia alone is responsible for the illegal conflict and has the power to end the war.
“Like every nation in the world, the United States wants this war to end,” Biden said. “No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine, and we strongly support Ukraine in its efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution that delivers just and lasting peace.”
“It is Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine’s children,” Biden said. “If we abandon the core principle of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure? I’d respectfully suggest the answer is, ‘No.’”
“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” he added.
A battle over Congressional budget negotiations has left Biden’s request for $24 billion in new aide for Ukraine in limbo. Lawmakers must come to a spending agreement by the end of the month or the U.S. government will face a shut down.
Some Republicans have pushed back against continued U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“There’s no money in the House right now for Ukraine,” Representative Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s not a good time for [Zelensky] to be here, quite frankly.”