UK’s Starmer says he wonders ‘how Russia can show its face in this building’ as it wages war on Ukraine
Starmer, addressing the UN’s security council meeting, says members must ensure accountability for those violating the UN charter.
The greatest violation of the charter in a generation has been committed by one of his council’s permanent members – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal. It threatens global security, it’s caused colossal human suffering.
The UK prime minister says he wonders “how Russia can show its face in this building” of the UN and accuses Moscow of “treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder”.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered a global energy crisis and a global food crisis, he says, and “now the world looks on” as Moscow deepens its military ties with North Korea and Iran. Starmer says:
There can be no equivocation. They must be held accountable. Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawed by force. Russia started this illegal war. It must end it and get out of Ukraine.
Starmer says the UK stands with the 89 countries who have made clear that Ukraine’s territorial integrity “must be the basis of any just and lasting peace”.
He says that any process that does not recognise this fact will only be used as a pretext by Russia to “regroup and come again”.
In this moment of deepening conflict, the world looks to this council more than ever to provide leadership for peace, preserve our collective security and protect the most vulnerable. The United Kingdom will always play its full part in fulfilling that responsibility.
Key events
Rowena Mason
Keir Starmer’s trip to the United Nations general assembly in New York is his third trip to the US in three months.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, is also attending to present his “victory plan” to Joe Biden and the US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Zelenskyy has been seeking permission to use British-French-made Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory, with UK support, but negotiations with the US are still continuing as the weapons use some US technology.
Pressed on when a decision would be made about the use of UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles within Russia, Starmer said:
We will have discussions about a whole range of issues, and we will listen carefully to what President Zelenskyy’s got to say, and that’s what’s going to happen in the next few days.
He added the discussions would not be about the “sole issue like long-range missiles” but a “strategic, overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression”.
UK’s Starmer says he wonders ‘how Russia can show its face in this building’ as it wages war on Ukraine
Starmer, addressing the UN’s security council meeting, says members must ensure accountability for those violating the UN charter.
The greatest violation of the charter in a generation has been committed by one of his council’s permanent members – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal. It threatens global security, it’s caused colossal human suffering.
The UK prime minister says he wonders “how Russia can show its face in this building” of the UN and accuses Moscow of “treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder”.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered a global energy crisis and a global food crisis, he says, and “now the world looks on” as Moscow deepens its military ties with North Korea and Iran. Starmer says:
There can be no equivocation. They must be held accountable. Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawed by force. Russia started this illegal war. It must end it and get out of Ukraine.
Starmer says the UK stands with the 89 countries who have made clear that Ukraine’s territorial integrity “must be the basis of any just and lasting peace”.
He says that any process that does not recognise this fact will only be used as a pretext by Russia to “regroup and come again”.
In this moment of deepening conflict, the world looks to this council more than ever to provide leadership for peace, preserve our collective security and protect the most vulnerable. The United Kingdom will always play its full part in fulfilling that responsibility.
Starmer calls on the UN security council to seek political solutions “that can break repeated cycles of violence” such as in the Middle East, a region he describes as being “on the brink”.
The UK leader says there needs to be an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the implementation of a plan that allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes safely.
“That security will come through diplomacy, not escalation,” Starmer says.
There is no military solution here, nor is there a military-only solution to the conflict in Gaza.
Starmer says the security council must demand an “immediate, full and complete” ceasefire in Gaza with the release of all the hostages.
He calls for a “political route” to that agreement that “provides a bridge to a better future, a credible and irreversible path towards a viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure state of Israel”.
On the war in Sudan, Starmer repeats his call for both parties to commit to a ceasefire and says he supports the UN secretary general’s envoy in his efforts towards peace.
We must keep working to bring this war to an end, and we must ensure that those responsible for committing atrocities are held accountable.
Starmer, addressing the UN’s security council, urges international consensus on delivering humanitarian support. “This should be a bare minimum, yet too often we’re falling short,” he says.
The UK leader says the council must address the situation in Gaza. “Let the hostages go,” he says.
We must face up to humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that continues to deepen by the day. Israel must grant humanitarian access to civilians in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law. There can be no more excuses.
Starmer says Israel must open more crossings to allow vital life-saving aid to flow into Gaza, and to provide a safe environment for the UN and other humanitarian organisations to operate to relieve the civilian suffering in Gaza.
The UK has restarted funding to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and is supporting Unicef to deliver water, healthcare and specialist treatment for malnourished children, he says.
The situation in Sudan also demands “urgent attention”, Starmer says.
Millions are facing emergency or famine conditions exacerbated by deliberate attempts to prevent aid reaching those in need. This is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, and the worst displacement crisis, with over 10 million people driven from their homes.
He says the UK has doubled its aid for the victims of the war but “much more is needed”, adding: “The world must step in.”
Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, is addressing the UN security council meeting where he began by paying tribute to those “who see these terrible conflicts and walk towards them with no agenda other than helping those in need”.
The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross have lost staff this month in Gaza, Lebanon and Donetsk, Starmer says, adding that more than 200 aid workers have been killed so far this year, including British citizens.
The UN’s security council must “deliver its responsibility for global peace and security”, Starmer says, noting that he will use his speech today to call to action in three key areas.
Here’s more on the Russian strike on Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region that killed two people and injured 12 others, including three children.
Journalists with Agence France-Presse at the scene of the strike saw what appeared to be two separate hits around a kilometre (0.6 miles) apart, both in residential areas.
Thick plumes of smoke were billowing from a partially destroyed 10-storey block of flats, the agency said. The strike also destroyed a five-storey apartment block and nearby restaurants.
A local resident, Tatyana Rybakova, said she had “crawled away from the window” after a loud bang, as she pointed to the place where her flat used to be in one of the destroyed buildings. She said:
I understand I have been left without a home: that I do understand.
Another resident, Lyudmyla Shalayeva, said she was cleaning her flat when she saw an explosion and barely had time to shelter in her hall. She said:
We’re scared every day. But we didn’t expect any shelling right here at us … Who can expect that?
Two killed, 12 injured by Russian guided bombs in east Ukraine
A Russian guided-bomb strike on Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday killed at least two people and injured 12 more, including three children, according to Vadym Filashkin, the Donetsk region governor.
Russian troops used three highly destructive bombs in the attack on the town’s centre that damaged two apartment blocks, shops and cars, Filashkin posted to Telegram, according to Reuters. He wrote:
This is another war crime of the Russians and another sad reminder that there are no absolutely safe places left in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine foreign minister says there are ‘no alternatives’ to Zelenskyy’s peace plan
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has posted to X to say that “there are no alternatives” to the peace formula put forward by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He added that Zelenksyy, in his address to the UN general assembly today, “drew the world’s attention to the threats of Russian aggression and the need of unity, not division”.
There are no alternatives to comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in accordance with the Peace Formula, which is based on the UN Charter. In his speech at #UNGA79, @ZelenskyyUa drew the world’s attention to the threats of Russian aggression and the need of unity, not division. pic.twitter.com/tpm3MI8lIg
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) September 25, 2024
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has blasted China for supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine and said Moscow would not be able to continue its aggression without help from Beijing.
Frederiksen, in an interview with Politico on Wednesday, name-checked China as part of a group of four countries including Russia, North Korea and Iran, whose close cooperation “has huge global consequences”. She said:
I don’t think it would be possible for Russia to have a full-scale war for more than two-and-a-half years now without help from China. We cannot continue a situation where China helps Russia in a war … in Europe, without consequences. They have to be held responsible for their activities.
She added that the consequences for Beijing must be political, and warned that “we cannot allow ourselves to be naïve”.
You cannot on the one hand let Russia attack another European country and continue like nothing has happened.
Zelenskyy says the world must restore nuclear safety and for energy to stop being used as a weapon. He says food security must be ensured and that all the captured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians must be returned home.
The Ukrainian president says the UN charter must be upheld to guarantee his country’s right to territorial integrity and sovereignty. Russian occupiers must withdraw and “we must hold those responsible for war crimes accountable,” he says.
We need to make it clear the war is over. This is the peace formula.
Concluding his address to the UN general assembly, Zelenskyy says:
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.
Zelenskyy calls for ‘real peace’ in UN speech criticising plans that ‘ignore suffering of Ukrainians’
Zelenskyy says that nearly 100 nations and international organisations have supported the peace formula that he has proposed, including countries that have “gone through wars themselves, and those accustomed to peace are all were equal”.
The Ukrainian president says he has met with leaders from across the world during this UN general assembly summit, and that they all “share the same understanding”. “It must be a real, just peace,” Zelenskyy says.
He says that unfortunately it is “impossible” to resolve matters of war at the UN because too much depends in the UN’s security council on member’s veto power.
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.
Zelenskyy says other proposals put forward by other countries not only “ignore the interests and suffering of Ukrainians who are affected by the war the most” but that they also ignore reality and give Vladimir Putin the “political space to continue the war”.
He says “maybe somebody wants a Nobel Prize instead of real peace” for parallel or alternative attempts to put forward settlement plans, “but the only prizes Putin will give you in return are more suffering and disasters.”
Zelenskyy says ‘there can be no just peace without Ukraine’
Zelenskyy says it is the Ukrainian people who are suffering the consequences of Russia’s war – it is Ukrainian children who are “learning to distinguish the sounds of different types of artillery and drone”.
It is the Ukrainian people who are forcefully separated because Vladimir Putin “decided he could do whatever he wants”.
He says that every world leader who supports Ukraine understands how Russia wants more territory, “which is insane”, and is working to seize more land “while wanting to destroy its neighbour”. Zelenskyy says:
That’s why we say there can be no just peace without Ukraine.
Zelenskyy says every neighbour country of Russia in Europe and central Asia knows that “the war will come to them as well”.
Zelenskyy says Putin plans to attack Ukraine’s nuclear power plants
Zelenskyy says the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is looking for ways to “break the Ukrainian spirit”, including by targeting his country’s energy infrastructure with deliberate Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants and entire 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.
The Ukrainian president says he has recently received a report that Putin plans to attack the country’s nuclear power plants and infrastructure.
Zelenskyy warns that any missile or drone strike or any critical incident in Ukraine’s energy system could lead to a “nuclear disaster”, adding:
A day like that must never come … These are nuclear power plants. They must be safe.
He adds that if “God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, radiation will not respect state borders.”
Zelenskyy begins addressing UN general assembly
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has begun his address to the UN general assembly in New York. He begins by speaking about the day Russian tanks fired directly at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The Russian army stormed the plant “brutally” and without thinking about the potentially “disastrous” consequences. It was “one of the most horrifying moments of the war”, Zelenskyy says.
Zelenskyy says this is why nuclear safety plays a key part of the peace formula that he presented. “Most in the world understand what’s at stake,” he says.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, who will be stepping down from his role on 1 October, has posted on X about his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (see 12.02pm BST).
Calling Zelenskyy his “good friend”, Stoltenberg said they agreed that “Ukraine’s future is in Nato”. Stoltenberg added:
We will continue to work together to bring that day closer, and to help Ukraine prevail in its fight for freedom.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to address UN general assembly
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is shortly due to address the UN general assembly. He is expected to seek support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, and to present his “victory plan” – a roadmap for Ukraine to end the war with greater western backing.
In a forceful speech to the UN security council on Tuesday, Zelenskyy called on a broad alliance of nations to “force Russia into peace”, saying that Vladimir Putin has violated the foundations of the UN and that the war “can’t be conquered by talks” alone.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of committing “international crimes” by targeting Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, and claimed he had proof that Putin is plotting to target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants to further degrade the country’s energy grid.
In his speech, he added that further pressure was needed to conclude peace with Russia after it had been “doing things that cannot possibly be justified under the UN charter”.
He has repeatedly called on the US and UK to drop their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia, despite concerns in the Biden administration that those attacks could lead to further escalation of the war.
