Full Transcript: Mike Waltz, UNSC Ukraine Remarks (September 23, 2026)

Thank you, Mr. President, for convening this meeting. And thank you, Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo, for your briefing.

Colleagues, yesterday—just a few rooms from here—President Trump stood before the world, stood before the General Assembly and said again what he has said for the last four years: “the killing has to stop.”

It’s important what you did not hear him say. He did not say one side has to win, another side has to win. It’s not about winning. All sides are losing. All sides are losing, colleagues. The world is losing.

25,000 lost souls per month. At this point. Obviously, 25,000 too many. But every month that goes on—another 25,000—another 25,000.

And while so many in this room, in so many forums around the world, in Europe and other places—colleagues we could fill these rooms with speeches about peace.

The President is doing everything he can to actually broker that peace—in this conflict and some of the other forgotten, complicated, or far-flung conflicts. And, as he said yesterday, he is fully committed to facilitating peace in this war.

Over the last four and a half years, young men have been fed into trenches and killing fields by the tens of thousands. Families have buried sons, fathers, wives, sisters, children. Apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, ports, power have been destroyed and are being destroyed right now as we speak.

And this war is spreading beyond the battlefield. Missiles and drone attacks threaten commercial shipping, Black Sea food grain exports—and are now threatening the world’s poorest families with famine. Strikes on energy infrastructure are raising costs far beyond Russia and Ukraine and into Africa, into Asia, and into the rest of the world.

Colleagues, the President has been clear since day one that the war has to stop.

We should note that the rhetoric in this Council and elsewhere have shifted to ending the war, which is a positive thing. But now we have violations of neighboring airspace, including NATO airspace, that create risks that no one in this room takes lightly.

And I want to be clear that we condemn, in the strongest terms, any attempts to broaden the war. We also condemn any attacks that threatens the free flow of food into global markets, and we join my colleague from Colombia, my colleagues from Panama, and others.

And we should talk about more. We should continue to talk about the recruiting of our nationals around the world as mercenaries, as fighters, whatever label you want to put on it, we should include in that the recruiting of the Cuban mercenaries that are now being pulled into this war—with full knowledge of the Cuban regime.

So, again, the spreading of this conflict is unacceptable. It is dangerous. And I appreciate many of the remarks and speeches today in supporting our efforts—hasn’t always been that way, frankly—but in supporting our efforts to try to end this war before it spreads out of control.

Colleagues, roughly a third of the world’s wheat supply stands in the balance now, as does the risk of famine for millions of the world’s most vulnerable should these disruptions continue.

So again, the message from President Trump is this: Don’t widen the war, recognize that there is no military solution to this war, and return to the negotiating table.

And there are areas of common ground, and particularly in energy security and food security, where we do think there could be some reasonable incremental steps towards peace.

But colleagues, we have to make the way for peace.

Special Envoys Witkoff and Kushner have been carrying that message directly to Kyiv, directly to Moscow. They have worked tirelessly at great personal cost and out of love for country and love for peace. And the United States is prepared to mediate, to facilitate trilateral talks, to use every diplomatic opening available to bring the parties together. And we welcome other efforts, we welcome efforts from India, from Türkiye, and from others to bring peace.

And we and our inexhaustible Special Envoys will keep showing up. We will keep talking. We will keep giving diplomacy a chance. And we will keep working until there is a path to a ceasefire, an end to the war, and a negotiated settlement. We know this is where this war has to land and how it has to end.

And just let me say this: As the President charges forward to bring peace between these countries, let’s take a moment and admire the example of First Lady Melania Trump, who has worked with both Russia and Ukraine to secure the return of children separated from their families by this war.

And I know you will agree with me that it is children who painfully suffer in any of these conflicts, and particularly this one. And her work is a reminder that even in the middle of a brutal war, when everything seems intractable, the two sides can do something, which, again, not too long ago was thought unthinkable. If she can set that example, I think there is hope and there is a path.

Both sides can still talk, and these children can come home. And if Russia and Ukraine can work to reunite children with their families, then they can sit across the table and begin the much harder work of ending this conflict.

Peace will require difficult choices from all sides. It will require compromise. It will require leaders to recognize that another 25,000 lives, just by the time we talk about this again—it’s completely, it’s just completely unacceptable.

President Trump and the United States government are doing our part. We hope and pray Russia and Ukraine will do theirs. Please, colleagues, let’s stop the killing and let’s make way for peace.

And I thank you.