Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to play a starring role at the United Nations General Assembly next week as he will personally rally support against Russia's invasion of his country at the annual gathering.

The assembly opens Tuesday with more than 140 world leaders, including United States President Joe Biden, attending.

Zelensky is expected Wednesday to attend a special session on Ukraine at the Security Council — raising the possibility of a dramatic confrontation with Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member.

While an overwhelming majority of countries have voted to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an expert on the UN at the International Crisis Group, Richard Gowan, said a hardline stance by Zelensky may cause a diplomatic crisis as the war already laid bare deep divisions, with some developing countries uneasy about the billions of dollars devoted to Kyiv, even as the war also affects the poor by driving up food prices.

On Thursday, Zelensky will head to Washington for talks at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will kick off the week on Monday with a summit on development, hoping to keep a focus on meeting elusive goals for helping the neediest countries.

"We will be gathering at a time when humanity faces huge challenges — from the worsening climate emergency to escalating conflicts, the global cost-of-living crisis, soaring inequalities and dramatic technological disruptions," Guterres said of the General Assembly.

"People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess. Yet in the face of all this and more, geopolitical divisions are undermining our capacity to respond," he said.

"A multipolar world is emerging. Multipolarity can be a factor of equilibrium. But it can also lead to escalating tensions, fragmentation and worse."

Biden will be the only leader of the veto-wielding Permanent Five to attend this year. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are both skipping the General Assembly, which comes weeks after they saw fellow leaders at the Group of 20 summit in India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who rarely come to the United Nations, will again miss this year's edition.

 WITH AFP