Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskyy calls for ‘real peace’ in UN speech criticising plans that ‘ignore suffering of Ukrainians’ | Ukraine

Zelenskyy says that nearly 100 nations and international organisations have supported the peace formula that he has proposed, including countries that have “gone through wars themselves, and those accustomed to peace are all were equal”.

The Ukrainian president says he has met with leaders from across the world during this UN general assembly summit, and that they all “share the same understanding”. “It must be a real, just peace,” Zelenskyy says.

He says that unfortunately it is “impossible” to resolve matters of war at the UN because too much depends in the UN’s security council on member’s veto power.

When the aggressor exercises veto power, the UN is powerless to stop the war. But the peace formula … there is no veto power in it. That’s why it’s the best opportunity for peace.

Zelenskyy says other proposals put forward by other countries not only “ignore the interests and suffering of Ukrainians who are affected by the war the most” but that they also ignore reality and give Vladimir Putin the “political space to continue the war”.

He says “maybe somebody wants a Nobel Prize instead of real peace” for parallel or alternative attempts to put forward settlement plans, “but the only prizes Putin will give you in return are more suffering and disasters.”

Zelenskyy says it is the Ukrainian people who are suffering the consequences of Russia’s war – it is Ukrainian children who are “learning to distinguish the sounds of different types of artillery and drone”.

It is the Ukrainian people who are forcefully separated because Vladimir Putin “decided he could do whatever he wants”.

He says that every world leader who supports Ukraine understands how Russia wants more territory, “which is insane”, and is working to seize more land “while wanting to destroy its neighbour”. Zelenskyy says:

That’s why we say there can be no just peace without Ukraine.

Zelenskyy says every neighbour country of Russia in Europe and central Asia knows that “the war will come to them as well”.

Zelenskyy says the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is looking for ways to “break the Ukrainian spirit”, including by targeting his country’s energy infrastructure with deliberate Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants and entire energy grid.

Russia has destroyed all our thermal power plants and a large part of our hydroelectric capacity. This is how Putin is preparing for winter, hoping to torment millions of Ukrainians … Putin wants to leave them in the dark and [force] Ukraine to suffer and surrender.

The Ukrainian president says he has recently received a report that Putin plans to attack the country’s nuclear power plants and infrastructure.

Zelenskyy warns that any missile or drone strike or any critical incident in Ukraine’s energy system could lead to a “nuclear disaster”, adding:

A day like that must never come … These are nuclear power plants. They must be safe.

He adds that if “God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, radiation will not respect state borders.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has begun his address to the UN general assembly in New York. He begins by speaking about the day Russian tanks fired directly at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The Russian army stormed the plant “brutally” and without thinking about the potentially “disastrous” consequences. It was “one of the most horrifying moments of the war”, Zelenskyy says.

Zelenskyy says this is why nuclear safety plays a key part of the peace formula that he presented. “Most in the world understand what’s at stake,” he says.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is shortly due to address the UN general assembly. He is expected to seek support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, and to present his “victory plan” – a roadmap for Ukraine to end the war with greater western backing.

In a forceful speech to the UN security council on Tuesday, Zelenskyy called on a broad alliance of nations to “force Russia into peace”, saying that Vladimir Putin has violated the foundations of the UN and that the war “can’t be conquered by talks” alone.

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of committing “international crimes” by targeting Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, and claimed he had proof that Putin is plotting to target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants to further degrade the country’s energy grid.

In his speech, he added that further pressure was needed to conclude peace with Russia after it had been “doing things that cannot possibly be justified under the UN charter”.

He has repeatedly called on the US and UK to drop their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia, despite concerns in the Biden administration that those attacks could lead to further escalation of the war.

Rowena Mason

At the UN general assembly in New York, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will be pushing for a deal on the use of Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, supported by the UK.

Asked about Zelenskyy’s prospects of success, UK prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters it was “at a critical stage”.

Starmer said:

Obviously, President Zelensky has a plan that he wants to walk through with all of us … The support for Ukraine is resolute. We supply quite a lot of capability already under the last government; we’ve increased that under this government – that’s not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully to what Ukraine says it needs by way of capability.”

He said the long-range Storm Shadow missiles would not be the sole issue under discussion but it would also be about “the strategic overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression”.

Starmer’s trip is taking place as negotiations continue with the White House to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons on Russian territory. David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, argued this week it was time for “nerve and guts” to allow a change of policy.

But Starmer’s visit to Washington to see the US president, Joe Biden, earlier this month did not resolve sticking points over the use of the British and French-made weapons, which also rely on US technology.

Even if a breakthrough is made on the talks this week, it is unlikely any decisions on the missiles will be announced at this week’s summit.

Nato plans to coordinate the transport of a large number of wounded troops away from frontlines in case of a war with Russia, potentially via hospital trains as air evacuations may not be feasible, according to a senior general.

The future scenario for medical evacuations will differ from allies’ experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt Gen Alexander Sollfrank, the head of Nato’s logistics command, told Reuters in an interview.

In a conflict with Russia, western militaries would likely be faced with a much larger war zone, a higher number of injured troops and at least a temporary lack of air superiority close to the frontlines, the German general said.

“The challenge will be to swiftly ensure high-quality care for, in the worst case, a great number of wounded,” he said without specifying how many injured troops Nato would expect, reports Reuters.

The planning for medical evacuations is part of a much broader drive by Nato, prompted by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to overhaul and boost its ability to deter and defend against any Russian assault.

The German military has said it expects Russia to be able to attack a Nato country as soon as 2029, while Russian president Vladimir Putin casts the west as the aggressor for arming Ukraine.

Sollfrank runs Nato’s Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC), tasked with coordinating the swift movement of troops and tanks across Europe as well as logistical preparations such as the storage of munitions on Nato’s eastern flank.

Recently, reports Reuters, JSEC – which is based in the southern German town of Ulm – staged an exercise in coordination of patient flows.

Should a conflict with Russia arise, wounded troops will not only need to be transported over a larger distance than in other wars of recent years, Sollfrank said. Russian air defences and jets would threaten medical evacuation flights in a way that insurgents in Afghanistan or Iraq could not, likely creating a need for hospital trains that can transport more casualties at the same time than aircraft.

“Air superiority will have to be achieved in the first place. It will require time to succeed over the entire length and depth of the frontline,” Sollfrank told Reuters.

He added:

For planning reasons, all options to take a great number of wounded to medical installations need to be considered, which includes trains but potentially also buses.”

Differing medical regulations between countries are another hurdle to overcome, Sollfrank said. A “military medical Schengen”, akin to the political Schengen zone that allows free movement within most of the EU, could be a solution. It could entail an area of free passage for sensitive medications such as narcotics or strong painkillers, which would be needed to treat wounded troops but whose cross-border transport is regulated.

Russia’s troops have not reached the outskirts of Ukraine’s eastern town of Vuhledar but its reconnaissance groups are operating there, said the governor of Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

“Our defenders are trying to knock them out. The town has not been captured,” he said in televised comments.