Zelenski accuses Russia, from the UN platform, of having expansionist ambitions: Parts of the Republic of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied
President Volodymyr Zelensky urged a global front against Russian aggression in a dramatic speech to the UN General Assembly. “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our lands, our people, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” he said, CNN reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of weaponizing the global food supply in its war in Ukraine during his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly.
It is the first time the Ukrainian president has addressed the assembly in person.
He said in addition to ammunition and military equipment, Russia is “weaponizing many other things,” like the supply of food, which is impacting many countries, not just Ukraine.
He said port cities and infrastructure have been the subject of increasing attacks by Russia.
“It is clear, Russia’s attempt to weaponize the food shortage on the global market in exchange for the recognition for some, if not all, of the captured territories,” Zelensky said.
“Russia is launching the food prices as weapons,” he added.
The president said Ukraine is working to establish land routes for Ukrainian food exports and urged leaders to support the initiatives.
In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned 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 have evidence on hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported," he said Tuesday.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant in March for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
"We are trying to get children back home, but time goes by. What will happen with them? What will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine. And all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide," he said. Zelensky said the war in Ukraine is the latest in a long list of Russia's conflicts.
"Each decade Russia starts a new war. Parts of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied. Russia turned Syria into ruins," he argued.
