Zelenskyy urges world leaders to cut off Russia's money and war machine at UN General Assembly

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday with an urgent appeal to global leaders: choke off Moscow’s revenue streams and industrial base before the conflict expands further across Europe and onto automated battlefields.

As he addressed world leaders in New York, Russian drones struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in rare broad-daylight attacks, killing two people and wounding 23 others. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, two people were injured when another strike ignited a large fire at a shopping mall.

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Against the backdrop of the fresh strikes, Zelenskyy pressed the international community to tighten sanctions and cut off the financial pipelines sustaining Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military campaign.

“Limit his money. Limit his war,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia’s finances and Russia’s production are what must be stopped if Putin is to be stopped.”

Zelenskyy argued that Moscow’s territorial ambitions extend beyond Ukraine, warning that neighboring nations including Moldova and Poland remain at risk of Russian expansionism. He also cautioned that advances in artificial intelligence could dramatically escalate the lethal nature of warfare without swift diplomatic intervention.

“As early as next year, there is a real possibility that A.I., not only people, will decide what happens on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy told the assembly. “We need peace before we reach that point.”

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In one of the address’s starkest disclosures, Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian forces have captured North Korean troops in combat and transferred two of them to South Korea. According to reports cited from Ukrainian media, one captured soldier attempted suicide when he realized he was being taken alive—stunned to survive after conditioning by Pyongyang that surrender is forbidden and death is mandatory.

Zelenskyy framed the incident as evidence of an emerging totalitarian axis, accusing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of trading soldiers’ lives as currency in exchange for Russian military technology, drawing Asian security directly into the European trench lines.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pushed back against calls for an immediate halt to hostilities. Lavrov said Russia remains prepared to negotiate toward a lasting resolution, but flatly rejected any proposal to merely pause the fighting, arguing that a temporary ceasefire would only allow Ukraine and its Western allies time to rearm.