In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Syrian Foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as part of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the Lotte Palace Hotel, on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in New York. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
Russia addresses world leaders at UN three years into Ukraine invasion
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 Russia gets the microphone at the U.N. world leaders’ meeting Saturday, three years into an invasion of Ukraine that the international community has broadly deplored and a that powerful member newly says Ukraine can repel.
In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Syrian Foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as part of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the Lotte Palace Hotel, on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in New York. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
By Jennifer Peltz And Edith M. Lederer The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 Russia gets the microphone at the U.N. world leaders’ meeting Saturday, three years into an invasion of Ukraine that the international community has broadly deplored and a that powerful member newly says Ukraine can repel.
Russian Foreign Minister is due to give his country’s address at the , four days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Ukraine can win back all the territory it has lost to Russia. It was a from a U.S. leader who had previously and could never reclaim all the areas Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and .
Just three weeks earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Trump’s administration “is listening to us.鈥
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Trump’s new view came after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of General Assembly Tuesday 鈥 seven months after a between the two in the Oval Office. This time, the doors were closed, and the tenor was evidently different 鈥 “a good meeting,鈥 as Zelenskyy described it in his .
For the , Zelenskyy appealed to the gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other top officials to get Russia out of his country 鈥 and warned that inaction would put other countries at risk.
鈥淯kraine is only the first,” he said.
鈥 intrusions blamed on Russia 鈥 have raised alarm around Europe in recent weeks, particularly after NATO jets and Estonia said Russian fighter jets flew into its territory and . Russia denied that its planes entered Estonian airspace and said the drones didn’t target Poland, with Moscow’s ally Belarus maintaining that Ukrainian signal-jamming sent the devices off-course.
But European leaders meant to rattle NATO and to suss how the alliance will respond.
Russia has for the Ukraine war, among them assuring its own security after NATO expanded eastward over the years.
Lavrov’s address to the General Assembly last year was a , whetted with a reference to 鈥渢he senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is.鈥
