Volodymyr Zelensky looked tired.
asserted
Zelensky → look → ?
Like the country he leads he can barely comprehend that he is still talking of war into the fifth year of Ukraine’s defence against Russia.
asserted
he → lead → Russia
He has a new message and a new way to deliver it.
asserted
He → have → it
Vladimir Putin, he told the assembled world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is “patient zero” spreading the infection of war to Africa, Asia, all over the world.
asserted
he → tell → world
“Putin is always looking for someone who can help him kill more, kill more people for every kilometre of land, take more territory, attack another country instead of simply stopping and running his own country, the Ukrainian president said.
asserted
president → look → country
“After all of this, can you even imagine him without war?
asserted
you → imagine → war
He is patient zero, the one from whom this idea of war keeps spreading further.
asserted
idea → spread → war
“And wherever it spreads, it brings only pain, instability, new risks, and of course, new crisis.
asserted
it → spread → course
The more freedom Putin has to act, the more dangerous the world becomes for everyone else.”
asserted
world → have → everyone
The warning is well known, and well taken.
asserted
warning → know → ?
Nato’s members have been rattled by constant hybrid attacks in cyberspace, through proxy thugs, drone incursions and political support for extreme right wing parties.
asserted
members → rattle → parties
Lately there have been intelligence warnings that an embattled Putin may strike at a Nato flank, or fringe location, to test the resolve of the most powerful military coalition on earth.
uncertain
Putin → strike → earth
Zelensky regretted that Xi Jinping, China’s leader, wasn’t on hand to hear him speak although he was in the US, due to meet Donald Trump.
asserted
he → regret → Trump
He warned against the complacency that has allowed Beijing to profit from Russia’s war to its west through exports of technology and weapons parts while fuelling the Kremlin’s ambitions with hard cash to spend on more conflicts.
asserted
Beijing → warn → conflicts
But Ukraine’s president didn't actually go in to that detail.
asserted
president → go → detail
He took a more subtle approach - warning that Asia could not risk the contagion from "patient zero” carried through Pyongyang.
uncertain
Asia → take → Pyongyang
“His comrade, the leader of North Korea, sent his troops to Russia to support the weak points of the Russian army.
asserted
comrade → send → army
The North Koreans also suffered losses, heavy losses.
asserted
Koreans → suffer → losses
“You probably saw the broadcast from Pyongyang when they honoured those who were killed.
asserted
who → see → those
Why should Koreans give their lives in a war against Ukraine?
asserted
Koreans → give → Ukraine
“Kim Jong-un uses them like currency and he gets something in return.
asserted
he → use → return
And North Korea's neighbors and countries across Asia have probably already noticed its improved ballistic missiles and Pyongyang's much greater drone capabilities,” Zelensky observed.
asserted
Zelensky → notice → missiles
China has an uneasy relationship with Kim.
asserted
China → have → Kim
It wold get a lot uneasier if he manages to develop better missiles to deliver the nuclear weapon he is developing, and battle tested Russian drone technology.
asserted
he → get → weapon
Zelensky had a swipe against the European Union’s recent lifting of sanctions against two Russian oligarchs saying that making “life more comfortable for rich Russians” but it “also gives the war more time, more time for Putin to send poor people into the kill zone”.
asserted
Putin → have → zone
In the last eight months he claimed that Russia had suffered 248,000 dead and badly wounded and that Kyiv had the video evidence from drone feeds to prove it.
asserted
Kyiv → claim → it
In drawing attention to the massive Russian losses since the full scale invasion of February 2022, Ukraine’s president was reinforcing the concept of the contagion from “patient zero” and the guilt the outside world should feel for its limited response to it.
asserted
world → draw → it
He also sighted the tone of his speech at UNGA.
asserted
He → sight → UNGA
In the passed he has drawn long applause and standing ovations as the leader of an underdog nation fighting the Russian bear.
asserted
he → pass → bear
Now his pitch is one that says we have the answers, perhaps the cure, for patient zero.
asserted
we → say → patient
Ukraine needs help, of course.
asserted
Ukraine → need → course
But he made a sales pitch for his nation of startup warriors who now lead the world in modern warfare technology.
asserted
who → make → technology
Ukraine has “Freya” a missile programme it is developing alongside ten countries including the UK, Canada, France, and Germany. Poland has been invited on board too.
asserted
Poland → develop → board
“Ukraine is building its security so that we reinforce our role of a real provider of security and help others get the protection that has already worked for us and that can truly reduce the space for starting and spreading wars in the world,” he insisted.
asserted
he → build → world
In short - Ukraine’s problem is now global - but Kyiv has the jab.
asserted
Kyiv → have → jab
The Aporia
