Zelensky, at UN, urges leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impeding its war efforts

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urges the world’s leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, telling the UN General Assembly that “Russia’s revenues must remain a target.”

“When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he says in English, a language he often uses at the world body.

Russia gets its turn Saturday to address the assembly. President Vladimir Putin hasn’t traveled to the gathering in years, sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead.

Lavrov told the UN Security Council earlier today that Russia is prepared to negotiate toward a lasting peace but won’t just “pause” the war. He argued that such a pause would just buy Ukraine and its backers time to line up more weapons.

Zelensky casts doubt on Russia’s interest in ending the fighting.

“Something always seems to stop Putin from saying, ‘That’s it. Enough. Peace,’” Zelensky says. “Can you even imagine him without war? He is ‘Patient Zero,’ the one from whom war keeps spreading further. … ‘Patient Zero’ must be stopped.”