Russia 'can only be forced into peace', Zelensky tells UN

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (R) arrives for 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. [AFP]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday 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, Zelensky also joined the United States in pressuring Iran and North Korea for alleged military support to Russia.

Zelensky, 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 Putin," Zelensky said, "to possibly hear from him that he's upset because we are exercising our right to defend our people."

Zelensky, 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.

Zelensky 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," Zelensky said.

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

Zelensky 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.

Zelensky's political positioning comes weeks ahead of a US 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

Zelensky 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 US 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.

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," 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," Blinken said.

Zelensky 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."