President of Ukraine at UN General Assembly: Terrorists Have No Right to Hold Nuclear Weapons

Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression no one in the world will dare to attack any nation, and weaponisation must be restrained. President Volodymyr Zelensky made such a statement while addressing the General Debate of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“History shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most, back in the 1990s. And Russia deserves it now – terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons,” the Head of State stressed.

At the same time, as Zelensky noted, even not using nuclear weapons, the terrorist state weaponises everything it has access to: food, energy, and even Ukrainian children from the occupied territories.

“While nukes remain in place, the mass destruction is gaining its momentum. The aggressor is weaponising many other things and those things are used not only against our country but against all of yours as well,” the President said.

The Head of State underscored: there are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponisation.

Zelensky named Russia’s weaponisation of nuclear energy as one of the examples of such a threat.

“Not only is it spreading its unreliable nuclear-power-plant-construction-technologies, but it is also turning other countries’ power plants into real dirty bombs. 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 weaponising nuclear power plants? Scary question,” the Head of State stressed.

The President emphasised that the goal of the current Russian war against Ukraine was to turn our land, people and resources into weapons against the rules-based international order.

“As nukes are restrained, likewise the aggressor must be restrained and all its tools and methods of war. Each war now can become final, but it takes our unity to make sure that aggression will not break in again,” the Head of State noted.

He believes that only open work of all nations for peace, not a dialog between the so-called “great powers” somewhere behind closed doors, can guarantee the new no-wars-era.

Zelensky noted that the Peace Formula proposed by our state had steps that would stop all forms of weaponisation that Russia used against Ukraine and other countries and may be used by other aggressors.

“While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression no one in the world will dare to attack any nation. Weaponisation must be restrained. War crimes must be punished. Deported people must come back home. And the occupier must return to their own land. We must be united to make it. And we will do it,” the President stressed.

Natalia Tolub