French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) speaks as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) looks on during a UN Security Council meeting on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday (September 24, 2024) at the United Nations that Russia can only be forced into a peace settlement, as he vowed not to negotiate on Moscow’s terms to end the war.

Addressing a special UN Security Council session attended by a representative of Russia, Mr. Zelenskyy also joined the United States in pressuring Iran and North Korea for alleged military support to Russia.

Zelenskyy, on a trip in which he is presenting his “victory plan” for Ukraine, questioned the sincerity of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has suggested freezing lines of control.

“We know some in the world want to talk to Mr. Putin,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, “to possibly hear from him that he’s upset because we are exercising our right to defend our people.”

Mr. Zelenskyy, clad in his trademark military fatigues, called such views “insanity.”

“Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed— forcing Russia into peace,” he said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said that any end to Russia’s two-year-old invasion has to be based on the UN Charter, which enshrines sovereignty by member states.

“One day in this hall, it will surely be said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has ended— not paused, not forgotten, truly ended,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

“This will happen not because someone got tired of the war, not because someone traded something with Mr. Putin. Russia’s war against Ukraine will end because the UN Charter will work.”

Mr. Zelenskyy will on Thursday meet at the White House with President Joe Biden, who in an address to the United Nations urged international support for Ukraine until victory.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s political positioning comes weeks ahead of a U.S. election in which Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has described billions of dollars of US aid to Ukraine as wasteful and voiced admiration for Putin.

China calls for peace push

Mr. Zelenskyy again promised a second “peace summit” and said he was inviting both China and India, key powers that have refused to go along with Western sanctions on Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing the Security Council, welcomed what he described as rising pressure for diplomacy.

“Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to settle the Ukraine crisis. If day after day, peace talks cannot be launched, then misjudgment and miscalculation would build, which leads to even greater crisis,” he said.

He insisted China was devoted to peace, saying: “China is not a creator of the Ukraine crisis, nor are we a party to it.”

But he spoke ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who again charged that China has been fueling Russia’s military build-up through the export of items nominally for civilian use including advanced electronics and machine tools.

Mr. Blinken rejected suggestions that his criticism was hypocritical when the United States is arming Ukraine.

“There is a profound difference. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim,” Mr. Blinken said.

He called for the United Nations to act against both North Korea, which has ramped up military supplies to Russia, and Iran, recently accused by US intelligence of shipping short-range missiles to Russia.

“Support from Tehran and Pyongyang is helping Putin inflict carnage, suffering and ruin on innocent Ukrainian men, women, children,” Mr. Blinken said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said of the two countries: “Russia has no legitimate reason— none at all— for making Iran and North Korea de facto accomplices in its criminal war in Europe, with their weapons killing us, killing Ukrainians.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-styled moderate in the cleric-run state, on Monday denied Tehran has sent weapons and criticized Moscow for its “aggression.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky postponed all his upcoming foreign trips as Ukraine’s army battled to contain a front-line push by the Kremlin’s forces, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 15 visited a drone manufacturing facility in Kyiv on the second day of a visit meant to reassure Ukrainians of continuing American support.

Mr. Zelensky canceled all foreign visits “that were planned for the coming days,” his office said May 15. The head of state instructed his team to reschedule the visits.

“We are grateful to our partners for understanding,” the announcement said.

Mr. Zelensky had been expected to visit Spain, and perhaps Portugal, later this week. No reason was given for his decision, but Ukraine is having a hard time fending off the latest Russian assault.

Mr. Blinken also toured a grain transshipment facility and a bionics factory, praising Ukrainian innovation and ingenuity in the face of wartime difficulties.

“Ukraine has had to adapt and adjust to this and it’s done so remarkably,” Mr. Blinken said of grain exports now being taken by rail after traditional shipping routes were interrupted by Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian troops are pressing a fresh offensive in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. It began last week, marking the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began and forcing almost 8,000 local people to flee their homes. Together with Moscow’s weekslong effort to build on its recent gains in the eastern Donetsk region, the more than two-year war has entered a critical stage for Ukraine’s depleted army.

Against that grim backdrop, with thousands of Ukrainian troops locked in fierce battles in towns and villages, Mr. Blinken on May 14 pledged unceasing U.S. support for the country, during and beyond the war. He also tried to lift spirits in Kyiv, performing on guitar with a band at a city bar and eating pizza at a veteran-run restaurant.

Russia is opening new fronts in order to stretch Ukraine’s army, which is short of ammunition and manpower, along the about 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, hoping defenses will crumble. Russian artillery and sabotage raids have also been menacing Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv and Sumy regions.

Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly video address May 14 that the army has sent reinforcements to the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

“It is too early to draw conclusions, but the situation is under control,” he said.

The pace of Russia’s advance in the Kharkiv border region, where it launched an offensive late last week and has made significant progress, has slowed, the Institute for the Study of War said late May 14. The Washington-based think tank said Moscow’s main aim there is to create a “buffer zone” that will prevent Ukrainian cross-border strikes on Russia’s Belgorod region.

Mr. Blinken on May 15 visited a drone manufacturer on the outskirts of Kyiv and toured a grain transshipment facility where Ukrainian grain is loaded into containers for export by rail.

Mr. Blinken praised the ingenuity of the process, which local companies adopted after traditional shipping routes were interrupted by Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.

“Ukraine has had to adapt and adjust to this and it’s done so remarkably,” Mr. Blinken said.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down several Ukrainian missiles over the Black Sea and near the Belbek air base, Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said. Sevastopol is where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is headquartered.

The fragments of downed missiles fell into residential areas but caused no casualties, Mr. Razvozhayev said.

Russian air defenses also shot down nine Ukrainian drones, two Vilha rockets, two anti-radar HARM missiles and two Hammer guided bombs over the Belgorod region early Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said.

Two people were injured in the village of Dubovoye when a Ukranian rocket set their house ablaze, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The military said five other Ukrainian drones were downed over the Kursk region and three drones were shot down over the Bryansk region.

The Defense Ministry also said that another Ukrainian drone was downed over the Tatarstan region. Tatarstan is located more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said two drones attacked a fuel depot. He said there were no casualties or fire.

Ukraine has launched a steady series of drone attacks on oil refineries and fuel depots across Russia over the past months, causing significant damage.

Moscow:

Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry’s database.

The entry it cited gave no further details.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)