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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the continuing war between the two countries and urged world leaders to maintain economic pressure on Moscow in an address to the United Nations General Assembly, Al Jazeera reported.
“For nearly five years now, Russia’s generals have tried to carry out Putin’s crazy war,” Zelenskyy said, arguing that no one openly supported the conflict “except for one man”.
He claimed that Russia had lost 248,000 soldiers in Ukraine over the past eight months while capturing slightly more than 1,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory this year.
“Putin spent 248 people for every kilometre. Does anyone still think he is smart?” Zelenskyy said, stressing that the figures represented people rather than mere statistics.
He also warned that Russia could intensify its bombing campaign in the coming months, saying Ukrainians were preparing for a difficult winter.
Zelenskyy calls for pressure on Russia’s revenues
“Something always seems to stop Putin from saying, ‘That’s it. Enough. Peace,’” Zelenskyy said. He described the Russian leader as “patient zero”, from whom war continued to spread, and said he had to be stopped.
Ukraine launched its deepest-ever attack inside Russia this month, targeting two Arctic gas condensate facilities more than 3,000 kilometres from the border. A separate attack on Sunday forced a Moscow oil refinery to halt crude processing.
On Wednesday, Russian forces used jet-powered drones to strike two petrol stations and other sites in Kyiv, killing one person and injuring at least seven others.
US President Donald Trump has called for an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, citing the war as one factor behind rising fuel prices.
Zelenskyy said revenue from Russia’s trade was giving the war more time. “That is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he said.
Russia says it is ready for peace talks
Last week, Trump signed a wide-ranging sanctions package targeting Russia over its war in Ukraine, days after the US Congress sent the legislation to the White House with rare bipartisan support.
Zelenskyy also claimed that nationals of 47 countries were fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine. He referred to two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region last year and later sent to South Korea by Kyiv.
“Why should Koreans give their lives in a war in Ukraine?” he asked.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Moscow was prepared to negotiate a lasting peace with Ukraine but would not agree merely to “pause” the war, saying such a pause would give Kyiv and its supporters time to obtain more weapons.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia and Ukraine had both expressed interest in a limited ceasefire covering attacks on grain shipments and the energy sectors of both countries.
