President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky would like the United Nations (UN) to play a more important role in ending the war in Donbas and restoring Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"I am sure that the UN should play the important role in restoring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as the authority of international law. For this purpose, the existing mechanisms should be improved. It is unacceptable when the sovereignty of an independent state is violated by one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. This fact conclusively proves that the mechanisms of the 1945 model do not work in the proper way today," he said in his video speech at the plenary session of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

In his opinion, although the UN system played the role of "software that saved the world from critical errors," it must be admitted that the system is starting to malfunction more and more often, it is attacked by new "buggies" and "viruses," and countering them is not always effective.

"I am talking about this as the head of state, from whom the Russian Federation annexed Crimean peninsula in the 21st century. The state that has been holding back its [Russian] military aggression in Donbas for the seventh year," he said.

Zelensky believes that all this could lead to further devaluation of the UN Security Council. "Ukraine will actively participate in the process of its reform. This agency should become more representative, balanced, transparent and effective. It is in the interests of the UN to have an effective tool if someone abuses the veto and permanent member status," he said.

The President of Ukraine said that the creators of the UN could hardly have imagined that 75 years later, there would be a war in the center of Europe: "That in Crimea, human rights are grossly violated, Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars are being persecuted. The militarization of the peninsula and the water areas next to it is intensifying balance of security in the Black Sea region. Would they change something in the charter and mechanisms of the UN if they knew that in 75 years, as a result of the war in Donbas, there will be 14,000 deaths and almost 1.5 million people will lose their homes?"

Zelensky said that over the past year, Ukraine has proven that it really wants peace. "We managed to unblock the dialogue, we restored the meetings of the leaders of the Normandy Format countries, made significant progress in the mutual release of the detainees. On July 27, a comprehensive ceasefire started, which, despite attempts to disrupt it, still gives hope for achieving stable silence. It is extremely necessary to continue moving on the path to peace," he said.

The President of Ukraine believes that the next steps on this path should be the withdrawal of illegal armed formations and weapons from the occupied territories of Donbas, the return of control over the state border and, finally, the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders.