Warning of a dystopian future akin to the “Terminator” films, President Volodymyr  Zelensky called on listeners at the United Nations to regulate killing robots, which he said could soon threaten the safety of every human being on earth. At the same time, Tehran pretended it seeks no weapons of mass destruction.  

Mr. Zelensky detailed the threatening appearance of drones in the skies of Poland, Romania, and Moldova. A swarm of several drones was also detected this week over several Scandinavian countries, forcing the shutdown of the region’s largest airport at Copenhagen, Denmark. The Ukrainian president said Russia impels the use of the new robotic warfare. 

“Ten years ago war looked very different,” Mr. Zelensky said. Now “companies are already working on drones that can shoot down other drones. And it’s only a matter of time, not much, before drones are fighting drones and taking critical infrastructure and targeting people all by themselves — fully autonomous and no human involved, except the few who control AI systems.”

The Ukraine war has become the testing ground for drone warfare. The Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia have cooperated in upgrading and honing the weapons’ lethality. Shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion, Iran transferred hundreds of its Shehad class drones, which it later enabled Russia to produce and hone domestically. 

Mr. Zelensky called for better control of the artificial intelligence industry, saying its use of autonomous killing machines could outweigh the threat of nuclear weapons. Yet, keeping nuclear weapons out of the wrong hands, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, still tops the world’s agenda. 

Last week the UN Security Council finally struck down its resolution that allowed for removal of global sanctions on Iran. The move, known as “snapback,” was initiated by France, Britain, and Germany after they had tried in vain to negotiate a return of international inspectors to Iran, following the June destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a speech filled with anti-Israel venom, scoffed at the “snapback” move. “Last week, three European states” failed “to bring the proud people of Iran to their knees at the behest of the United States of America,” he said.

“I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb,” the Iranian president added. “This is our belief, based on the edict issued by the supreme leader and by religious authorities. Therefore, we never sought weapons of mass destruction, nor will we ever seek them.”

Most of Mr. Pezeshkian speech was critical of Israel’s Gaza war, which he called “genocide,” as well as Israel’s attacks on Iran’s allies in Syria and Lebanon. He said that Israel is the one that has nuclear weapons, while Iran is being punished. 

In his UN speech Mr. Zelensky — who had told Fox News this week that “Iran will never be a friend of Ukraine” — compared Russia’s aggression against European countries to the Islamic Republic’s moves in the Mideast. “Russia is trying to do to Moldova what Iran once did to Lebanon,” he said.

After the killing robot in “Terminator” — portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger — was defeated, he famously said, “I’ll be back.” While the Iranian Islamists fraudulently claim otherwise, they are reportedly striving to revive their nuclear weapons cache that was mostly destroyed in June. At the same time, Mr. Zelensky fears even more destructive forces.