Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has informed the United Nations Security Council that diplomacy would not suffice to end the conflict in Ukraine and that Russia must be “forced into peace”.
Zelenskyy told a high-level meeting of the 15-member council in New York that Russian President Vladimir Putin was committing “an international crime” and had broken so many international laws that he would not stop on his own.
“That is why this war cannot simply end. “That is why talks cannot bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy remarked. “Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed — forcing Russia into peace as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the UN Charter.”
Zelenskyy hopes to rally support among Ukraine’s friends for what he calls a “victory plan” to end the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He emphasized that the war would not stop because “someone got tired of the war” or through a bargain with Putin, referring to demands that Ukraine return some territory taken by Russia to end the conflict.
The meeting was attended by ministers from 14 of the council’s member nations except Russia, which sent its Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia.
He complained that Zelenskyy was being given a UN spotlight again.“Western countries could not refrain from poisoning the atmosphere once again, trying to fill the airtime with the hackneyed Ukrainian issue,” Nebenzia said of the meeting