Zelenskyy calls Putin 'patient zero' and warns AI could decide the battlefield

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his speech at the United Nations General Debate in New York to sharply criticize Vladimir Putin, to quantify Russian battlefield losses, and to warn about the growing risk that artificial intelligence could make combat decisions.

Zelenskyy opened by referencing a post he had read on Truth Social and used it to underline the strategic cost of Moscow’s campaign. He quoted the post’s line that “A large number of diesel refineries have been blown up and are temporarily out of operation,” and said the message underscores that the war "must end." He added: "I do not know a world leader who would say otherwise. I do not know anyone who is for this war, except one man."

Russian losses, North Korean fighters, and limited territorial gains

The president presented a stark body-count for recent months. "For eight months, the Russian army lost 248,964 people on the battlefield in Ukraine," he said, stressing that these are individual lives documented with video evidence. "This is not just statistics, these are real people. We have drone archives showing thousands and thousands of Russians losing their lives in zones of death." He noted that despite those casualties, Russia this year captured only a little more than 1,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, much of which Ukrainian forces have already recovered.

Zelenskyy also described military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, saying Pyongyang had sent fighters to reinforce exposed Russian positions and suffered casualties of its own. He recounted that Ukraine recently handed two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea and described the North Korean handling of its dead as evidence of how that regime treats its people.

The Ukrainian president accused Putin of repeatedly promising rapid victories and of seeking more than Donetsk alone. "He has again told US officials that he will take our Donetsk region and that he only needs a few more months," Zelenskyy said, calling it the 17th or 18th time in five years he has given that timeline. "Sooner or later he will fail again."

Turning to the wider international threat, Zelenskyy said Moscow spreads the idea of war beyond Ukraine: he warned of territorial claims against neighbours, threats toward Poland and the Baltic states, and pressure across the South Caucasus and Central Asia. He branded Putin the originator of the current wave of aggression: "He is 'patient zero'. The one from whom this idea of war continues to spread. Wherever it spreads, it brings pain, instability and new crises."

On Ukraine’s military targeting, Zelenskyy emphasised a strategic aim: to prevent Russia from funding, prolonging and intensifying the war. "Ukraine does not aim to attack petrol or diesel refineries. Our goal is to disable Russia’s ability to finance this war, to delay it and make it more brutal and destructive," he said, thanking countries and individuals who support Ukraine’s defence.

He closed with a technological warning: "As early as next year, there is already a real possibility that AI, not people, will decide what happens on the battlefield. And we need peace before we reach that point."

Photo: press material from the event