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Only “friends and weapons,” not international laws, can protect against war and authoritarian ambitions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Wednesday during an address to the United Nations General Assembly.
The Ukrainian leader, who has been pleading with the international community to do more to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin amid his more than three-and-a-half-year-long war, once again cautioned that Ukraine may have been the first European nation to bear Moscow’s affront to international order, but it will not be the last.
“Putin will keep driving the war forward wider and deeper. And we told you before, Ukraine is only the first. And now Russian drones are already flying across Europe,” Zelenskyy said. “Russian operations are already spreading across countries, and Putin wants to continue this war by expanding it.
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 24, 2025, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“No one can feel safe right now,” he added.
A general tone of dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the rules-based system has repeatedly rung out during the UNGA as world leaders condemned a growing disregard of international law and human rights amid rising security threats and geopolitical conflicts.
Zelenskyy again argued it is cheaper to stop Putin now than attempt to catch up in an arms race, build underground bunkers across cities and under kindergartens and to try and “protect every port and every ship from terrorists with sea drones.”
“Stopping Russia now is cheaper than wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead,” he said.
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Firefighters work on the site of a burning building after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
But it wasn’t only the international community’s failure to stop Putin that Zelenskyy addressed.
He pointed to the Israeli hostages who are still held in Gaza and the horrific conditions Palestinians live in.
“There is simply no other way left [that] nations can speak about the pain from stages like this,” Zelenskyy said. “But even during bloodshed, there isn’t a single international institution that can truly stop it. That’s how weak these institutions have become.
“What can Sudan or Somalia or Palestine or any other people living through war really expect from the UN or the global system? Just statements,” he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 24, 2025, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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“In the end, peace depends on all of us, on the United Nations,” Zelenskyy said. “So don’t stay silent while Russia keeps dragging this war on. Please speak out and condemn it.
“Please join us in defending life and international law and order,” he added. “People are waiting for action.”