Renewed Pressure on Russia Over the War in Ukraine

0:00Today on State of the World, renewed pressure on Russia over the war in Ukraine.

0:09You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close where they're happening. It's Wednesday, September 24th. I'm Greg Dixon. The day after President Trump seemed to do a full reversal on his Ukraine policy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Zelensky met with Trump at the U.N. on Tuesday, And afterwards, on social media, Trump wrote the Ukrainians are, quote, in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form. With that as the backdrop, Zelenskyy delivered a speech Wednesday touting the success of Ukraine's drones against Russia and offering to export them to like-minded nations.

0:54NPR's Michelle Kellerman is at the UN, and she tells us more about the speech. Speaking to the General Assembly for the fourth time as a wartime president, Vladimir Zelensky says he's learned one big lesson about the world body. Today, no one but ourselves can guarantee security. Only strong alliances, only strong partners, and only our own weapons. He told the UN General Assembly that Russia's war has sparked an arms race, and he touted the drones Ukraine has been building to defend itself from Russia's stockpile of missiles and Iranian-made drones. Ukraine doesn't have the big fat missiles dictators love to show off in parades, but we do have drones that can fly up to 2 ,000, 3 ,000 kilometers.

1:43We had no choice but to build them to protect our right to life. Zelensky spoke a lot about Ukrainian drones, telling countries around the world that they should do business with Ukraine rather than Russia. We are ready to make our modern weapons become your modern security, your modern weapon. And we have decided to open up arms exports. And these are powerful systems tested in a real war when every international institution failed. The sales pitch seemed to have worked on President Trump, who met with Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Trump now seems to think that Ukraine can retake territory now occupied by Russia.

2:25And he had this to say at one of his many photo ops on Tuesday. It's been a terrible war. It should have ended. And Russia should have stopped it. But they've been three and a half years and they've gotten not so far. So we'll see what happens. But the other side can fight too. And they've proven that maybe it's a it could be that Russia is a paper tiger. Trump said he thought it would be easy to end the war because of his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But unfortunately, that relationship didn't mean anything, unfortunately. Ever since he hosted Putin in Alaska last month, the Russians have stepped up their strikes on Ukrainian cities and towns and even violated NATO airspace with drones and fighter jets.

3:10European diplomats at the UN have been pressing Trump to put more pressure on Putin. Russian diplomats have called the Europeans paranoid Russophobes. Putin did not come to the UN, so there are few expectations of any real negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, though they did not speak to reporters. Zelensky's pitch was mostly about rallying the world to turn against Russia. Whether you help peace or continue trading with Russia and helping Russia to fund this war, it depends on you. And he urged countries not to stay silent. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the United Nations.

3:52As Michelle just mentioned, in the last few weeks, Russia has repeatedly violated the airspace of NATO countries, causing the allies to scramble fighter jets. As Terry Schultz in Brussels reports, NATO is warning that more incursions will lead to a more muscular response. It was the second time in as many weeks that NATO countries met an emergency session to talk about how to handle the growing number of airspace incursions by Russia. Fighter jets in Estonian airspace for 12 minutes last week, 19 drones in Poland earlier in the month. While Moscow denies the Estonian breach, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is warning the Kremlin to stop what he called this dangerous pattern, and he praised NATO's response so far.

4:37Our pilots are doing precisely what they are trained to do when there is a potential risk of incursion. And it works. No NATO citizens have been hurt, nor major infrastructure damaged in the last month by Russian air incursions. But as for deterring the incidents, that's another matter. I asked Ruta about that. Wouldn't it work better if they never entered NATO airspace? Clearly, what the Russians are doing is not acceptable. And what they will see now is that whatever happens, we are there. The Polish government has decided to go further than NATO has collectively, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying they will, quote, shoot down flying objects without discussion when they violate our territory and fly over Poland.

5:21That intention was underscored by a message from Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorsky to Russia at a UN Security Council meeting called by Estonia. If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on NATO territory, please don't come here to whine about it. You have been warned. Meanwhile, in Denmark, authorities are urgently investigating the source of large, sophisticated drones, which forced the closure of Copenhagen Airport for several hours Monday night. The Danish government says the perpetrator must be what it calls a capable actor, stopping short of saying a state actor.

6:04Moscow again denies involvement. But some good news Tuesday for eastern flank countries seeking support from their most powerful ally, President Donald Trump. Mr. President, do you think that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace? Yes, I do. Those three words from Washington may be the strongest deterrent yet in NATO's arsenal. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels.

6:36That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.