Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has singled out Russian President Vladimir Putin as the reason for the continuing war between the two neighbouring countries, urging world leaders to sustain economic pressure on Moscow during his address at the United Nations General Assembly. Zelenskyy said Russia had lost 248,000 soldiers over the last eight months in Ukraine, managing to capture “a little more than 1,000 square kilometres [386 square miles] of our territory this year”. Does anyone still think he is smart?” he said, adding that the numbers “are not just statistics.
This is what Putin wants,” he said. He is ‘patient zero’, the one from whom war keeps spreading further. Zelenskyy said he expects Russia to intensify its bombing campaign on the country in the coming months and that Ukrainians are prepared for a harsh winter.
This month, Ukraine launched its deepest-ever attack into Russia, targeting two Arctic gas condensate facilities more than 3,000km (1,865 miles) from its border. Another attack on Sunday forced a Moscow oil refinery to halt crude processing. Russia also slammed jet-powered drones into two petrol stations and other sites in Kyiv, killing one and injuring at least seven people on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, blaming the war between the two as one reason behind skyrocketing fuel prices. Zelenskyy called for sustained economic pressure, saying the money Russia earned through trade “gives this war more time”. Last week, Trump signed into law a sweeping sanctions package targeting Russia over its war in Ukraine, days after US Congress sent the bill to the White House with rare bipartisan support.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy also claimed that nationals of 47 countries are fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine, mentioning the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region last year, who were sent to South Korea by Kyiv. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Moscow is prepared to negotiate towards a lasting peace with Ukraine, but won’t just “pause” the war, arguing that such a pause would buy Ukraine and its backers time to line up more weapons. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says both Russia and Ukraine have expressed interest in a limited ceasefire that would halt attacks on grain shipments and each country’s energy sectors.
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