By Tom Balmforth and Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged world powers to help stop Russia’s war in his country in a speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, warning of a dangerous arms race that he said the fighting was helping unleash.
He called for global rules to curb the use of artificial intelligence in weapons while describing breakneck innovation in the military use of drones. He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking to expand his war beyond Ukraine.
“Stopping Russia now is cheaper than wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead,” he told the 193-member United Nations General Assembly.
His comments came a day after he met U.S. President Donald Trump at the United Nations, where Trump appeared to take a much tougher stance toward the Kremlin.
Trump said on Tuesday that Kyiv could retake all its occupied land from Russia in what would be an extraordinary battlefield reversal. He also endorsed the idea of shooting down Russian fighter jets that violate NATO airspace.
Zelenskiy said the advent of artificial intelligence meant the arms race under way was the “most destructive” in human history and voiced disappointment in what he said was the weakness of international law and cooperation.
Ukraine has been locked in fighting against Russian forces for more than three and a half years since their full-scale invasion triggered the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
Western support has been vital for Kyiv, but the future of that assistance has been uncertain as Trump has declined to impose powerful sanctions on Russia or provide fresh military assistance beyond selling arms.
Trump has talked up the need for Europe to take on more of the burden of supporting Kyiv and, despite his sudden shift in language this week, there is no sign for now that the U.S. president has stepped up actual support.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York on Wednesday for talks that lasted around 50 minutes.
Rubio reiterated Trump’s call for Moscow to take meaningful steps to end the war in Ukraine, the U.S. State Department said.
UKRAINE PITCHES ITS ARMS TECHNOLOGY AT ALLIES
In a sign of how Kyiv is pitching its technology and experience from the war to shore up fragile relations with its foreign partners, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had decided to begin exporting its weapons to allies.
Zelenskiy said the modern era meant that having powerful friends was essential, but that, “If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick – but that’s the reality.”
Ukraine has had tough restrictions on the export of its military products to prevent technology falling into the hands of its enemies, but it is now moving to relax them, in cases when its own stocks are covered.
“You don’t need to start this race from scratch. We’re ready to share what has already proven itself,” Zelenskiy told the United Nations, referring to Ukrainian defense production.
“We are ready to make our modern weapons become your modern security. We have decided to open up arms export. And these are powerful systems tested in a real war when every international institution failed,” he said.
He pointed to alleged airspace violations by Russian drones and fighter jets in NATO’s Poland and Estonia as evidence that Putin was testing new boundaries in the war in Ukraine.
“Now Russian drones are already flying across Europe, and Russian operations are already spreading across countries,” he said. “Putin wants to continue this war by expanding it, and no one can feel safe right now.”
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)
