Tag: 2022

The speech made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, to the Irish Parliament on 6 April 2022.

Dear speakers!

The Taoiseach and members of the government!

Dear members of the Oireachtas!

Dear people of Ireland!

Tonight Russian missiles again struck the territory of our state. Foully hitting the ordinary civilian infrastructure. In particular, the new depot with fuel. One of the dozens that Russia sees as a target. And this has already become the trademark of the occupiers – to destroy everything that helps to arrange ordinary life of ordinary people. They consistently destroy fuel storage sites, product distribution centers, destroy even conventional agricultural machinery, and mine fields. They are constantly sowing mines everywhere. In every place they are leaving.

In addition, Russia has blocked all our seaports, along with those vessels that have already been loaded with agricultural goods for export.

Why are they doing this?

Because they also consider hunger as their weapon. Weapon against us, ordinary people. As a tool to dominate.

Ukraine is one of the leading countries in the global food market. Without our exports, it is not simply a shortage, but a threat of famine for more than a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. Because there will be not enough volumes of commodities and prices will hike. It’s a fact.

It will be harder for millions of the poor in North Africa and parts of Asia to feed their families.

Now, it is the time of the planting season in Ukraine. To foil our planting season, to destroy our infrastructure is to deliberately provoke a food crisis. And what will happen due to this crisis? At least, it will be political turbulence. At most, there will be outbreaks of violence in regions where instability is becoming traditional, and a new mass influx of refugees who are simply looking for ways to survive will be seen.

Russia has been using hunger against our people since the first days of the war. The worst is in Mariupol. This half-million city was completely blocked by Russian troops more than a month ago. They blocked access from both land and sea. Any access.

They are blocking humanitarian goods, do not allow to bring anything – food, water, medicine. When there was snow, people could melt at least the snow to get water, but now there is none.

Round-the-clock shelling, air raids, bombing continue… There is not a single building left in Mariupol, not a single undamaged building. In the city with the population of half a million – none.

The dead and killed were buried in the yards of destroyed high-rise buildings. When they were able to do it. But in many cases it was not possible to bury. The bodies of people remained in the streets, in the ruins of houses, in collapsed basements.

We do not know how many Mariupol residents have been killed by Russia. But we know for sure that this was part of the general tactics of the occupiers. They did the same or tried to do the same with Chernihiv, Sumy, Okhtyrka, Kharkiv, Izium, Volnovakha and many other Ukrainian cities. You may not have heard all these names yet. But these are millions of people that Russia was simply trying to destroy. And continues to do so.

When you hear this, it may seem impossible. It may seem that no one in today’s world would dare to do so. But these are real facts.

The fact that the residents of Mariupol drew on the sheets of school notebooks how to find where the bodies of their loved ones are buried in the city yards. The fact that the Russian occupiers shot people on the roads as they tried to escape from the blocked cities. Hundreds of cars hit by shelling are still left on Ukrainian highways.

The fact that the Russian military did not even try to remove the bodies of killed people from the streets. While Bucha, Irpin and other our cities were under occupation, the corpses were laying just on the roads, on the roadsides, in the yards of houses – anywhere…

The fact that at least 167 children have been killed in 42 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We do not yet know all the victims of Mariupol. We do not know the victims of other cities, areas where hostilities or occupation continue.

The fact that 927 educational institutions and 285 hospitals have been destroyed or damaged in the shelling by Russia. Even 73 ambulances have come under the occupiers’ fire!

They bombed and shelled even churches… Even shelters, which they knew for sure that there was no one there but women and children… And that’s a fact.

A state that does this does not deserve to be among others in the international community.

Russia does not deserve relations with it as with one of the normal states. It must be responsible for everything it has done on Ukrainian land.

The Russian military came to Ukraine as an army of colonizers. Their state propagandists, their politicians don’t even hide what they want anymore.

In the 21st century, they see their state as a colonial empire that allegedly has the right to subjugate neighbouring nations and destroy any basis for their independent living. Destroy even the very identity of nations. Everything that makes us Ukrainians…

The Russian military purposefully searched for and killed teachers in the occupied territories. Everyone who was associated with the army. They kidnap local government officials and kill community leaders. Along with the Russian army, units to suppress any political resistance immediately they entered our territory were created…

Now, when there are discussions about sanctions against the Russian Federation, I just can’t hear any doubts, I can’t see any indecision…

After everything we have experienced in Ukraine. After all that the Russian troops did. Even now, when the world already knows everything about Russia’s war crimes against our people, we have to persuade even some European companies to leave the Russian market. We still have to convince Western politicians in some countries that we need to stop any connection between Russian banks and the global financial system. Unfortunately, we still have to convince Europe that it is impossible that Russian oil provides the Russian military machine with a generous flow of money.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Irish people!

From the first days of the Russian invasion, you are on the side of good. On the side of freedom. On the side of Ukraine. And this is also a fact. You have no doubt whether to help us. You started doing it right away. And although you are a neutral country, you have not remained neutral to the grief and suffering that Russia has brought to Ukrainians. I am grateful to all of you for that. I am grateful to the leadership of your country, to every Irish man and woman. I am grateful for the support of sanctions against Russia. I am grateful for the humanitarian and financial support provided to us.

Thank you for taking special care of our people who have sought and found safety in your land. Just think about it: Russia has already left homeless 10 million Ukrainians who were forced to flee their hometowns because of this war … It is simply impossible to accept!

But let us be aware that Russia has not yet given up on its plans. It is still continuing offensive operations in Ukraine. It is still looking for ways to conquer all our Ukrainian people.

We must do everything together so that Russia forced to seek only peace. It seek only way to leave the territory of Ukraine and give us in peace.

That is why I urge you to show even more leadership in our anti-war coalition!

I urge you to persuade your EU partners to toughen sanctions against the Russian Federation. The sanctions that will really stop Russia’s military machine.

We need to stop all trade with Russia. Russia’s banks’ ties with the world’s financial system must be blocked. We need to cut off the flow of money that the Russian budget receives for oil and spends it on missiles, bombs, artillery shelling…

The world has long developed appropriate mechanisms. Everyone knows what to do.

The only obstacle is the lack of principled stance of individual leaders. Yet. Political leaders, business leaders. Those who still think that war and war crimes are not as terrible as financial losses.

I’m sure your leadership can change that.

I am confident that all of us in Europe together will be able to end this terrible war and restore peace and stability in Eastern Europe. It is simply impossible to procrastinate with this. The longer the Russian aggression lasts, the worse the consequences will be not only for our continent, but also for the neighbouring regions of our planet.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Irish people!

Our common principles, our common fearlessness have already started a new page in the history of relations between Ukraine and Ireland. Our mutual understanding and respect is at the level where we can say: it is only a matter of time before you and we live together in our common European home. I am grateful to you for supporting the special fast-track procedure for granting Ukraine membership in the European Union. With your leadership, it will be even faster and more profitable for both our nations.

And now we need to think about the restoration of our country. About recovery after the war. We invite the leading countries of the planet to take part in the reconstruction of Ukraine. Of course, I invite Ireland to take part in this project. I do it with pleasure.

For example, in our Kherson region. Your ability to value life and people, your ability to live in communities, your economic potential – they are well-known. So let’s join forces and show that Ukraine and Ireland together can do much more than the world’s largest state planned to destroy.

Grateful to Ireland!

Glory to Ukraine!

The statement made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, on 6 April 2022.

Ukrainians!

Today I will not take away much of your attention. The day was very informative. I will only briefly walk through the main points of my work this Tuesday, the 41st day of the invasion of the Russian Federation.

I continued my active diplomatic work. Addressed the UN Security Council, which convened for a special meeting on Russia’s war crimes in Bucha and in the occupied territories of Ukraine in general. I said what should have been said in this format a long time ago.

The UN Security Council exists, and security in the world doesn’t. For anyone. This definitely means that the United Nations is currently unable to carry out the functions for which it was created. And only one state is to blame for this – Russia, which discredits the UN and all other international institutions where it still participates.

Well, not exactly participates… Tries to block everything constructive and use global architecture in order to spread lies and justify the evil it does.

I’m sure the world sees it. I hope the world will draw conclusions. Otherwise there will be only one institution left in the world to guarantee the security of states. Namely – weapons.

I offered to the members of the UN Security Council and to all other states that respect international law specific things that could change the situation. In particular, a global conference already in peaceful Kyiv to determine how the world’s architecture can be reformed given all the actions of Russia, which is still occupying the seat of a permanent member of the UN Security Council received from the Soviet Union.

I also addressed the Parliament and the people of Spain. A state that supports our struggle for freedom and for the preservation of democracy in Europe.

I also spoke today with President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron about the humanitarian situation in the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. About how we can help people in the blocked Mariupol. We also agreed that France would provide the necessary technical and expert support in the investigation of the crimes of the Russian occupiers in Bucha and other cities of our country.

We are preparing a new package of powerful sanctions against Russia for everything it has done to our people.

Now is a crucial moment, especially for Western leaders. And this is no longer about how our people will evaluate the new sanctions and what I will say about them. This is about how decisions on sanctions will be assessed in Western societies themselves. After what the world saw in Bucha, sanctions against Russia must be commensurate with the gravity of the occupiers’ war crimes. If after that Russian banks will still be able to function as usual… If after that the transit of goods to Russia will continue as usual… If after that the EU countries will pay for Russian energy resources as usual… Then the political fate of some leaders will develop not as usual. My advice to everyone: feel now that the moment is really crucial.

We are preparing to welcome President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell in Kyiv in the near future. Working together in Kyiv is something that will be praised by many nations of the world. And not only in Europe. Because now Kyiv is the capital of global democracy, the capital of the struggle for freedom for all on the European continent.

And I want to thank all our defenders for making this possible. For the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine hold most of the areas where the enemy tried to break into the country.

The most difficult situation, as in previous days, is in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction. But we continue to do everything to ensure that our defenders have something to stop the Russian troops with.

We are aware that the occupiers outnumber us. That they have more equipment. We are aware of the attempts by Russian leaders to recruit new fools all over Russia among cadets of military schools, people with combat experience and conscripts to send them all to slaughter in another offensive.

But we have no other choice – the fate of our land and our people is being decided. We know what we are fighting for. And we do everything to win.

Today in the Mariyinsky Palace I presented the Golden Star Orders to the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who were awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, and to the members of families of those who were posthumously awarded this title.

Now it is in the Mariyinsky Palace, in the White Hall, where we always meet foreign heads of state, that such important ceremonies will take place. We will demonstrate every time that our defenders deserve respect and honor at the highest level.

And the White Hall of the Mariyinsky Palace will henceforth be called the White Hall of the Heroes of Ukraine. I also handed over the Order of Courage to the family of the deceased documentary photographer Maks Levin who was viciously killed by the occupiers in the Kyiv region. During his life, he made a significant contribution to making us all see and know what is happening in our country.

Traditionally, before delivering the evening address, I signed decrees awarding our military. 292 servicemen, 57 of them posthumously.

Eternal memory to all who gave their lives for Ukraine!

Eternal gratitude to each of our defenders!

Everything for the victory. Everything for peace. Everything for Ukraine.

Glory to Ukraine!

The speech made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, on 5 April 2022.

Dear Mrs. President!

Dear Mr. Secretary General!

Dear members of the Security Council and other participants of the meeting!

Thank you for the opportunity.

I am sure that all the representatives of the UN member states will hear me today.

Yesterday I returned from our city of Bucha, recently liberated from the troops of the Russian Federation.

It is difficult to find a war crime that the occupiers have not committed there.

The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our state.

They executed women outside the houses when approaching and simply calling someone alive.

They killed whole families – adults and children. And they tried to burn their bodies.

I am addressing you on behalf of the people who honor the memory of the deceased everyday. Everyday, in the morning.

The memory of the killed civilians.

Who were shot in the back of the head or in the eye after being tortured. Who were shot just on the streets.

Who were thrown into the well, so that they die there in suffering.

Who were killed in apartments, houses, blown up by grenades. Who were crushed by tanks in civilian cars in the middle of the road. For fun.

Whose limbs were cut off, whose throat was cut. Who were raped and killed in front of their own children.

Their tongues were torn out only because they did not hear from them what they wanted to hear.

How is this different from what the ISIS terrorists were doing in the occupied territory?

Except that it is done by a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

It destroys the internal unity of states.

Destroys state borders.

Denies the right of more than a dozen peoples on two continents to self-determination and independent state life. Pursues a consistent policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity.

Inflames wars and deliberately wages them in such a way as to kill as many ordinary civilians as possible. To destroy as many ordinary peaceful cities as possible. To leave in the country where it sends its troops only ruins and mass graves. You’ve seen it all.

Promotes hatred at the state level and seeks to export it to other countries through its system of propaganda and political corruption.

Provokes a global food crisis that could lead to famine in Africa and Asia, and will certainly end in large-scale political chaos in countries where food price stability is a key factor of domestic security.

So where is the security that the Security Council must guarantee? There is no security. Although there is a Security Council, as if nothing happened.

So where is the peace that the United Nations was created to guarantee?

It is obvious that the key institution of the world, which must ensure the coercion of any aggressors to peace, simply cannot work effectively.

Now the world has seen what the Russian military did in Bucha while keeping our city under occupation. But the world has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities, in other occupied areas of our country.

Geography may be different, but cruelty is the same. Crimes are the same.

And responsibility must be inevitable.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I would like to remind you of the first article of the first chapter of the UN Charter. What is the purpose of our organization? To maintain peace. And to force to peace. Now the UN Charter is being violated literally from the first article. And if so, what is the point of all other articles?

Today, it is as a result of Russia’s actions on the territory of my state, on the territory of Ukraine, that the most heinous war crimes of all time since the end of World War II are being committed.

Russian troops are deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities to ashes with artillery and air strikes.

They are deliberately blocking cities, creating mass starvation in them. They are deliberately shooting at columns of civilians on the roads who are trying to escape from the territory of hostilities.

They are even deliberately blowing up shelters where civilians are hiding from air strikes. They are deliberately creating conditions in the temporarily occupied territories so that as many civilians as possible are killed there.

The massacre in our city of Bucha is just one, unfortunately, of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for 41 days.

And there are many other such places that the world has yet to find out the full truth of: Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka, Borodyanka and dozens of other Ukrainian communities, each of which is like Bucha.

I know, and you know very well, what the representatives of Russia will say in response to the accusations of these crimes. They have said this many times. The most illustrative was after the downing of a Malaysian Boeing over Donbas by Russian forces with Russian weapons. Or during the war in Syria.

They will blame everyone, just to justify themselves. They will say that there are different versions, and which of them is true is allegedly impossible to establish yet. They will even say that the bodies of those killed were allegedly “planted”, and all the videos are staged.

But. Now is the year 2022. There is conclusive evidence. There are satellite images. It is possible to conduct a full, transparent investigation.

That is what we are interested in.

Maximum access of journalists. Maximum cooperation with international institutions. Involvement of the International Criminal Court. Full truth, full responsibility.

I am sure that every state in the UN system should be interested in this. For what? In order to punish once and for all those who consider themselves privileged, consider themselves unpunished. Hence, to show all other potential war criminals in the world that they will inevitably be punished as well. If the biggest is punished, everyone will be punished.

Why did Russia come to Ukraine, tell me?

I will answer. Russia’s leadership feels like colonizers – as in ancient times. They need our wealth and our people. Russia has already deported tens of thousands of our citizens to its territory. Then there will be hundreds. It abducted more than two thousand children. Simply abducted thousands of children. And continues to do so. Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into silent slaves.

The Russian militaries are openly looting the cities and villages they have captured. This is looting of the highest scale. They steal everything from food to gold earrings they just rip out with blood.

We are dealing with a state that turns the right of veto in the UN Security Council into a right to kill.

Which undermines the whole architecture of global security.

Which allows evil to go unpunished and spread the world. Destroying everything that can work for peace and security.

If this continues, the finale will be that each state will rely only on the power of arms to ensure its security, not on international law, not on international institutions.

Then, the UN can simply be dissolved.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Are you ready for the dissolving of the UN? Do you think that the time of international law has passed?

If your answer is no, you need to act now, act immediately.

The power of the UN Charter must be restored immediately.

The UN system must be reformed immediately so that the right of veto is not a right to kill. So that there is a fair representation of all regions of the world in the Security Council.

The aggressor must be forced to peace immediately. Determination is needed. The chain of mass killings from Syria to Somalia, from Afghanistan to Yemen and Libya should have been stopped a long time ago to be honest.

If tyranny had ever received such a response to the war it had unleashed that it would have ceased to exist and a fair peace would have been guaranteed after it, the world would have changed for sure.

And then, perhaps, we would not have a war, a war in my country. Against our nation, the Ukrainian nation. Against people.

But the world watched and did not want to see the occupation of Crimea, or even before – the war against Georgia, or even earlier – the alienation from Moldova of the entire Transnistrian region. It also didn’t want to see how Russia was preparing the ground for other conflicts and wars near its borders.

How to stop it?

Immediately bring the Russian military and those who gave them orders to justice for war crimes in Ukraine.

Everyone who gave criminal orders and fulfilled them by killing people will face a tribunal similar to the Nuremberg trials.

I want to remind Russian diplomats that a man like von Ribbentrop has not avoided punishment after World War II.

And I also want to remind the architects of Russia’s criminal policy that punishment has reached Adolf Eichmann as well.

None of the culprits will escape. No one.

But the main thing is that today is the time to transform the system, the core of which is the United Nations. To do this, we propose to convene a global conference. And we ask to do it already in peaceful Kyiv – in order to decide.

How we will reform the world security system.

How we will really guarantee the inviolability of universally recognized borders and the integrity of states.

How we will ensure the rule of international law.

It is now clear that the goals set in San Francisco in 1945 during the creation of a global international security organization have not been achieved. And it is impossible to achieve them without reforms.

Therefore, we must do everything in our power to pass on to the next generations an effective UN with the ability to respond preventively to security challenges and thus guarantee peace.

Prevent aggression and force aggressors to peace. Have the determination and ability to punish if the principles of peace are violated.

There can be no more exceptions, privileges. Everyone must be equal. All participants in international relations. Regardless of economic strength, geographical area and individual ambitions.

The power of peace must become dominant. The power of justice and the power of security. As humanity has always dreamed of.

Ukraine is ready to provide a platform for one of the main offices of the updated security system.

Just as the Geneva office specializes in human rights, just as the Nairobi office specializes in the field of environmental protection, the Kyiv U-24 Office can specialize in preventive measures to maintain peace.

I want to remind you of our peaceful mission in Afghanistan. When, at our own expense, we Ukrainians evacuated more than a thousand people from this country. And it was the hottest phase. But people needed help – and Ukraine came. Just like other states.

We evacuated people of different nationalities, different faiths. Afghans, citizens of European countries, USA, Canada. We did not distinguish who needs help, whether these are our people or not. We saved everyone.

If every time there was a need everyone in the world was confident that help would come, the world would be definitely safer.

Therefore, Ukraine has the necessary moral right to propose a reform of the world security system.

We have proven that we help others not only in good times, but also in dark times.

And now we need decisions from the Security Council. For peace in Ukraine. If you do not know how to adopt this decision, you can do two things.

Remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war from blocking decisions about its own aggression, its own war. And then do everything that can establish peace.

Or show how you can reformat and really work for peace.

Or if your current format is unalterable and there is simply no way out, then the only option would be to dissolve yourself altogether.

I am convinced that you can do without the third option.

Ukraine needs peace. We need peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace.

And finally, I’m asking you to watch the video. A short one.

A video of what has come to replace your power because someone alone can abuse his rights.

This is what impunity leads to.

If possible – watch this video. Because there is no opportunity for everyone to come to us and see it. So watch it.

Thank you.