Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Russia as a "terrorist state" in a defiant speech given via videolink to the UN Security Council on Wednesday evening.
"Among you are representatives of a state that offers nothing to the world except terror, destabilisation and disinformation," Zelenskyy said. "Any Russian formulas do not provide for anything else."
Zelenskyy further called for the rapid implementation of the so-called 'Peace Formula', which he had previously outlined at the recent G20 Summit in Bali. Among other things, the 10-point Peace Formula calls for the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, a new security architecture and security guarantees for Ukraine, and the creation of a Special Tribunal to investigate Russian war crimes.
"I emphasize once again — it's time to support the Ukrainian Peace Formula!" Zelensky said.
Cold terror
Zelenskyy's speech comes against the backdrop of renewed Russian missile attacks against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, which have paralysed much of Ukraine's energy grid to debilitate the civilian population for the coming winter months.
"Send blankets and generators or we'll freeze to death," Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, recently told The Daily Telegraph.
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"The understanding of what Russia wants to achieve with such strikes should not disappear anywhere in the world," Zelenskyy said in his UN speech.
"Energy terror is an analogue of the use of weapons of mass destruction. When the temperature is below zero outside, and tens of millions of people are left without electricity, heat and water as a result of Russian missiles hitting energy facilities, this is an obvious crime against humanity."
Zelensky's designation of Russia as a terrorist state has been mirrored in recent weeks across many European capitals.
Since Russia's invasion, the Senate of Poland, as well as the Czech, Latvian, and Estonian Parliaments, have all labelled Russia a terrorist state, as has NATO's Parliamentary Assembly and, on Wednesday, the European Parliament.
