Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used much of his time before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City on Tuesday to warn about the global threats unleashed by Russia’s invasion of his country, especially the proliferation of drone warfare, and he criticized the weakness of international institutions for allowing Russia’s war to continue.
“The 21st Century isn’t much different from the past,” Zelensky reflected. “If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick, but that’s the reality. Not international law, not cooperation – weapons decide who survives.”
“International law doesn’t work fully unless you have powerful friends who are willing to stand up for it. And even that doesn’t work without weapons. It’s terrible, but without it, things will be even worse. There are no security guarantees except friends, and weapons.”
Zelensky said “international institutions,” including the U.N., have become too weak to stop violence like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or other conflicts currently raging around the world. He also criticized the U.N. and other international bodies for moving too slowly to lift sanctions against Syria and provide assistance for postwar reconstruction, even though dictator Bashar Assad was overthrown almost a year ago.
“There is no ceasefire because Russia refuses,” he said. “Russia abducted thousands of Ukrainian children. We have brought some of them back, and I thank everyone who has helped, but how long will it take to bring all of them home? Childhood slips away faster than adults are able to help.”
“Look at Israel,” he continued. “Nearly two years have passed, and hostages still haven’t been freed.” He also complained about the failure of the international community to take meaningful action against chemical weapons, the use of famine as a weapon, and the danger of radiation leaks from Russian attacks near nuclear facilities in his country.
“Because international institutions are too weak, this madness continues,” he said.
Zelensky pointed to Russian drones violating Polish airspace, and Russian fighters violating the airspace of Estonia, as evidence that “even being part of a long-standing military alliance doesn’t automatically mean you are safe.”
Zelensky’s speech focused on Russia as the greatest source of malign influence on the current world scene, citing Moscow’s negative effect on neighboring states like Georgia, Belarus, and Moldova.
“It’s important to remember how the world once ignored the need to help Georgia after Russia’s attack, and how the moment was missed with Belarus,” he said, urging the world to help Moldova avoid a similar fate.
Zelensky also mentioned Iran several times as a source of global instability, and blasted the Taliban of Afghanistan for “dragging a whole country back to the Dark Ages.” He warned that criminal cartels in some Latin American nations are “more powerful than the governments there.”
Zelensky also criticized the rising tide of political violence in the Western world, saying that only divine intervention saved President Donald Trump from being assassinated during his 2024 presidential campaign. Zelensky sadly noted that another assassin was able to take the life of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and he mourned “the Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska,” who was “brutally killed with a knife here in America – the very country where she was seeking refuge from Russia’s war.”
“Almost every day, when we open the news, we see headlines about violent attacks happening all around the world.”
The Ukrainian president pointed to all of these crises as evidence of the “failure of international institutions,” and repeated his assertion that only “weapons decide who survives.” He warned that the world faces an especially urgent threat from the proliferation of drones caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, since both sides have made extensive use of drones, which caused the deadly technology of autonomous weapons to advance at frightening speed.
“Weapons are evolving faster than our ability to defend ourselves,” he said.
Zelensky said the Russian invasion has produced “tens of thousands of people who know how to professionally kill with drones,” a weapon that is “harder to stop than any knife, bomb, or gun.”
“This is what Russia has brought with its war,” he charged. “It used to be that only the strongest countries could use drones, because they were expensive and complex. Now even simple drones can fly thousands of kilometers. War doesn’t revolve around geography anymore. It’s now reshaping it.”
“What happens when all these kinds of drones become available to terrorist groups or cartels?” he wondered. “The world moves too slowly to protect itself, and weapons move too fast.”
Zelensky feared the dawn of fully autonomous drone warfare, with swarms of robot craft fighting under the direction of artificial intelligence without human oversight – a world in which no human would be truly safe.
Zelensky said Ukraine had “no choice” but to join this arms race and develop its own drones, which inevitably pushed the state of the art to more dangerous levels. He noted that the incredible expense of fighting the drone war left Ukraine with little money for more constructive pursuits. He tweaked the U.N.’s priorities by noting that drone defense was a far more serious concern for the people of Ukraine than fighting climate change, and warned Europe that it might soon be expending far too much of its wealth on protecting civilians from Russian aggression.
“We need global rules, now, for how A.I. can be used in weapons,” he urged. “This is just as urgent as preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.”
Zelensky concluded his speech by stressing the importance of the firm partnerships Ukraine has established, singling out President Trump for praise. He said those partnerships have been of far greater value for “real defense” than international organizations or the United Nations.
Zelensky called on the nations of the assembly to demonstrate their commitment to peace by ceasing all trade with Russia, starving President Vladimir Putin of the funding he needs to continue the war.
“Look at how many countries are here at this General Assembly – countries that are at war, or just came out of war, or are trying to stop one, or are openly getting ready for one. War has already reached too many people to pretend it has nothing to do with you,” he said.
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