A showdown is looming at the United Nations as Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his counterparts on the Security Council, a day after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky called for Moscow to receive “just punishment” for its invasion.
Mr Zelensky’s video address, in which he called for Moscow to be stripped of its UN veto – a power which has stopped the council from taking meaningful action despite meeting at least 20 times to discuss the war – came on the same day his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilisation of Moscow’s reserve forces and threatened to use nuclear weapons.
Mr Zelensky called on the world leaders gathered at the UNGA to bring retribution against Russia for causing “catastrophic turbulence” to their own economies with its “illegal war”.
Meanwhile, police arrested more than 1,300 people at protests held across Russia in response to Mr Putin’s order for as many as 300,000 military reservists to prepare for service in his country’s struggling campaign against its neighbour.
