Ukraine’s President Vlodomir Zelensky has warned that Vladimir Putin “will keep driving the war forward wider and deeper” if he is not stopped,
Speaking at the UN’s General Assembly in New York, Zelensky said more countries would be met with Russian aggression unless allies displayed a united front and ramped up support.
He said all nations were threatened by a global arms race, as military technology advances, adding that “weapons decide who survives” and calling for global rules on AI.
His comments come after US President Donald Trump shifted his position on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its land.
Zelensky criticised international institutions, suggesting they are “too weak” to offer Ukraine safety guarantees, adding – in apparent reference to Nato – that being part of a long-standing military alliance “doesn’t automatically mean you are safe”.
“We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history,” he said.
He argued that “stopping Russia now” was cheaper than “wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead”.
Zelensky called for international rules around AI and its role in weaponry, and said the development of autonomous drones and unmanned planes represented a far greater risk than traditional warfare.
The Ukrainian leader also warned that Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova – which lies between Ukraine and EU-member Romania – to Russian influence. He said the West had missed a chance to save Georgia and Belarus from Putin’s orbit.
On Thursday the pro-EU president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, accused the Kremlin of “pouring hundreds of millions of euros” into Moldova in an attempt to instigate violence and spread fear.
Voters in the former Soviet republic go to the polls on Sunday, amid what a BBC investigation found to be a barrage of disinformation spread by a network with ties to Moscow.
