Nuclear disarmament should not be sole means of preventing 'final war,': Zelenskyy
During speech at UN General Assembly, Ukrainian president accuses Russia of weaponizing food, energy
ANKARA
The world should not rely solely on nuclear disarmament to prevent "the final war," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.
The fight waged in the 20th century against the deployment, proliferation and testing of nuclear arms was "a good strategy" but "should not be the only strategy to protect the world from the final war," Zelenskyy said during his speech at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
He pointed out that after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal and "the world then decided Russia should become a keeper of such power."
"Yet history shows that it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most, back in the 1990s, and Russia deserves it now," he said.
Besides atomic nuclei, other things have also proven formidable threats when weaponized, Zelenskyy noted, citing food as an example as he accused Russia of "undermining" a key Black Sea deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain.
Ukraine's "most important ports on the Danube remain the target of drones," he said.
Zelenskyy also claimed that Moscow sought to make the world recognize parts of Ukraine that it has seized as Russian territory.
Noting that Kyiv has launched temporary sea exports for its grain, he said it was also "working hard to preserve land routes."
"And it is alarming to see how some in Europe, some of our friends in Europe, play out solidarity in political theater, making thriller from the grain," he said, in a likely reference to restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products by Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
Zelenskyy also said Russia is weaponizing energy, saying that by taking control of and shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine it "blackmails" the world with a possibility of a catastrophe.
"We must act united to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and energy on addressing these challenges as nukes are restrained," he said.
