Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the UN Security Council, New York, September 24, 2024

Tuesday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “The Next Few Months Will Be Decisive”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1901 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN General Assembly of the importance of defeating Russia’s 31-month invasion.

The President explained how Vladimir Putin is looking for ways to “break the Ukrainian spirit”, for example, through attacks on Ukraine’s 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.

To illustrate the threat, Zelenskiy described the storming of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the opening days of the invasion in February 2022, with the Russian army operating “brutally” and without thought of consequences in “one of the most horrifying moments of the war”

“Most in the world understand what’s at stake,” Zelenskiy said. “A day like that must never come….These are nuclear power plants. They must be safe.”

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

Noting how Ukrainian children are “learning to distinguish the sounds of different types of artillery and drone” and civilians are forcefully separated because Putin “decided he could do whatever he wants”, he said every world leader who support Ukraine understands how Russia wants more territory — “which is insane…while wanting to destroy its neighbor”.

“That’s why we say there can be no just peace without Ukraine,” he explained. Every neighbor country of Russia in Europe and central Asia knows that “the war will come to them as well”.

Referring to the support of almost 100 countries and international organizations for the Ukraine Peace Formula, Zelenskiy spoke of the way forward as Russia blockades the Security Council:

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.

The President added that proposals put forward by other countries such as China and Brazil not only “ignore the interests and suffering of Ukrainians who are affected by the war the most” but also ignore reality and give Putin the “political space to continue the war”.

I want peace for my people, real peace and just peace, and I am asking for your support from all nations of the world. We do not divide the world. I ask the same of you. Do not divide the world. Be united, nations, and that will bring us peace.

UPDATE 1218 GMT:

An 80-year-old woman has been killed by Russian shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Two people were wounded.

In the previous 24 hours, at least 11 people were killed and 69 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine.

In Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, at least three people were and 36 injured by Russian strikes which included the destruction of a high-rise apartment block.

In the Kharkiv region, a 93-year-old woman was killed in Kupyansk and a 61-year-old man slain in Varvarivka.

In the Donetsk region in the east, One person was killed in the town of Kostiantynivka and two others in the town of Pokrovsk near the frontline of Russia’s 11-month offensive.

In the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, a 55-year-old man was killed near the town of Polohy. In neighboring Kherson, one person was killed and 18 injured as Russian forces targeted 20 settlements, including Kherson city.

Another civilian perished in the Nova Sloboda community in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.

UPDATE 1150 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted about his conversation with outgoing NATO head Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg commented:

UPDATE 1055 GMT:

Russia has established a program in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in Ukraine, according to “two sources from a European intelligence agency” and documents reviewed by Reuters.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian State-owned weapons company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested the new drone model Garpiya-3 with the help of local specialists in China. Kupol reported on the work in a document sent to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Kupol later updated the Defense Ministry that it could produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China for the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The G3 can travel around 2,000 km (1,240 miles) with a payload of 50 kg (110 lbs). Samples of the G3 and other drone models made in China have been delivered to Kupol in Russia for further testing, with the involvement of Chinese experts.

Kupol has taken delivery of seven military drones made in China, including two G3s, at its headquarters in Izhevsk, west of the Ural Mountains, according to invoices sent to Kupol by a Russian firm acting as an intermediary with Chinese suppliers.

UPDATE 0831 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses downed 28 of 32 Iran-type attack drones and 4 of 8 missiles fired by Russia overnight.

The other four drones were lost “locationally in several oblasts of Ukraine”, possibility because of electronic counter-measures.

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has pushed back on the statement of Czech President Petr Pavel that “the most likely outcome of the war will be that part of Ukrainian territory will be temporarily under Russian occupation”.

The Ministry said that in a “just and lasting peace”, there are “no middle-ground solutions” and Russian withdrawal is “a realistic scenario”.

The withdrawal of Russian occupying forces from the sovereign territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders is one of the mandatory points of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky’s Peace Formula.

This and other provisions of the Formula will guarantee a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace not only for Ukraine, but for the entire European continent and the world.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský appeared to pull back Pavel’s statement in a post on Twitter:

UPDATE 0623 GMT:

Ukraine’s military says forces have recaptured a key position seized by Russia in its cross-border offensive into the Kharkiv region in May.

The military intelligence service HUR said an aggregate plant near the town of Vovchansk in northeast Ukraine was retaken after an “extremely difficult” attack by special forces.

“Ukraine’s Armed Forces took under control the territory of the aggregate plant after all 30 buildings were cleared,” the HUR reported. It said Russian troops had been captured.

A special forces officer told national TV, “The battle lasted a little over a week. There was intense shelling from the enemy. The enemy at the factory put up a lot of resistance, but in the end we completed the task.”

He said about 24 Russian soldiers were captured and “several dozen” others killed.

Russia’s troops advanced up to 10 km (6.2 miles) inside Kharkiv. They closed on Vovchansk, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Kharkiv city, but were unable to overrun the town.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked the members of the UN Security Council to help “force Russia into peace”, ending Vladimir Putin’s 31-month invasion.

Zelenskiy thanked the countries who have supported Ukraine’s resistance, then when beyond them with a call to Brazil, India and nation across Africa and Latin America: “all are equally important for peace without exceptions”.

He explained that Putin had violated the UN’s foundations. Russia had committed “international crimes” with the targeting of Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, including Putin’s plan to target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

The President emphasized that the invasion “can’t be conquered by talks” alone.

We know some in the world want to talk to Putin….But what could they possibly hear from him? That he’s upset because we are exercising our right to defend our people? Or that he wants to keep the war and terror going, just so no one thinks he was wrong?

It’s insane….Action is needed….

Putin has broken so many international laws and rules that he won’t stop. Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed, forcing Russia into peace as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the UN Charter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the Security Council’s members to support a “just peace” that “upholds the principles of the UN Charter”.

He said Ukraine is “prepared to engage in negotiations” to end the invasion; however, he avoided any specific issues such as Zelenskiy’s Peace Formula or request for permission to conduct long-range strikes inside Russia.

Instead, he focused on support for Moscow from Iran and North Korea, including weapons that have allowed Russia to maintain its assault. He also accused China of being a “top provider of machine tools, microelectronics and other items that Russia is using to rebuild, restock and ramp up its war machine and sustain its brutal war.”

“Risk of Escalation and Spillover”

UN Secretary General António Guterres told the Council that it was past time to end the invasion. He warned that only half of the UN’s response plan, providing humanitarian aid to around 6.2 million people in Ukraine, has been funded.

“The longer this tragic war continues, the greater the risk of escalation and spillover,” Guterres said.

Beyond the Council, Zelenskiy continued his series of meetings with national leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.