Volodymyr Zelenskyy Address to the 78th Session of United Nations General Assembly delivered 19 September 2003, UN HQ, New York, NY
[as translated from the Ukrainian language by the Ukrainian Govt] Thank you very much. I welcome all who stand for common efforts. And I promise -- being really united we can guarantee fair peace for all nations. What’s more, unity can prevent wars. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Secretary General, Fellow leaders: This hall saw many wars but not as an active defender against the aggressions.
In many cases, the fear of war, the final war, was the loudest here -- the war
after which no one would gather in the
General Assembly Hall again. So, the 20th century taught the world to restrain from the use of the weapons of
mass destruction -- not to deploy, Frankly, this is a good strategy. But it should not be the only strategy to protect the world from this final war. Ukraine gave up its third largest nuclear arsenal. The world then decided Russia
should become a keeper of such But truly not the nukes are the scariest now. While nukes remain in place, the mass destruction is gaining its momentum. The aggressor is weaponizing many other things and those things are used not only against our country but against all of yours as well. Fellow leaders: There are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponization. First, let me give you an example -- the food. Since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian ports in the Black and Azov
Seas have been blocked by Russia. Russia is
launching the food prices as weapons. The impact spans from the Atlantic coast
of Africa to Southeast I would like to thank those leaders who supported our Black Sea Grain Initiative, and program “Grain from Ukraine." Thank you so much. United, we made weapons turn back into food again. More than 45 nations saw how important it is to make Ukrainian food products available on the market -- from Algeria and Spain to Indonesia and China. Even now when Russia has undermined the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we are
working to ensure food stability. And I Second, weaponization of energy. Many times, the world has witnessed Russia using energy as a weapon. The Kremlin weaponized oil and gas to weaken the leaders of other countries when they came to the Red Square. Now the threat is even greater. Russia is weaponizing nuclear energy. Not only
is it spreading its unreliable Look please what Russia did to our Zaporizhzhia power plant -- shelled it, occupied it and now blackmails others with radiation leaks. Is there any sense to reduce nuclear weapons when Russia is weaponizing nuclear power plants? Scary question. The global security architecture offers no response or protection against such a
treacherous radiation threat. And The third example is children. Unfortunately, various terrorist groups abduct children to put pressure on their
families and societies. But never 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. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for this crime. We are trying to get children back home but time goes by. What will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine, and all ties with their
families are broken. This is clearly a When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there. Each decade
Russia starts a new war. Parts of Ladies and gentlemen: The aggressor scatters death and brings ruins even without nukes but the outcomes are alike. We see towns and villages in Ukraine wiped out by Russian artillery. Leveled to the ground completely. We see the war of drones. We know the possible effects of spreading the war into cyberspace. The artificial intelligence could be trained to combat well -- before it would
learn to help the humanity. Thank God, We must act united -- to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and
energy on addressing these As nukes are restrained, likewise the aggressor must be restrained and all its
tools and methods of war. Each war And it is not a dialog between the so-called “great powers” somewhere behind the
closed doors that can guarantee us Last year, I presented the outlines of the Ukrainian Peace Formula at the UN
General Assembly. Later in Indonesia, I Tomorrow I will present the details at a special meeting of the UN Security Council. The main thing is that it is not only about Ukraine. More than 140 states and
international organizations have Look -- for the first time in modern history, we have a real chance to end the
aggression on the terms of the nation We launched the format of meetings between national security advisors and
diplomatic representatives. Important I am aware of the attempts to make some shady dealings behind the scenes. Evil cannot be trusted -- ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises. Please, hear me. Let unity decide everything openly. While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything
to ensure that after Russian We must be united to make it. And we will do it. Слава Україні. [Glory to Ukraine.] Original Text Source: president.gov.ua/en Flag of Ukraine Source: goodfreephotos.com/ukraine/other--ukraine/flag--of--ukraine.jpg.php Page Created: 8/19/23 U.S. Copyright Status: Text = Used in compliance with the terms found here and licensed under CC 4.0 International. Flag of Ukraine = Public domain. |
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