“Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day. The 35th anniversary. A national holiday with a flavor profoundly changed by the war. 1,643 days of full-scale war. Right now, things are really very difficult for all of us. But there is a force holding us firmly by the hand – and it’s actually not invisible at all. It is the strength of our mutual circle: support for one another, freedom from doubt about the person beside us, faith in all Ukrainians. And as long as the enemy does not break this circle of ours, Ukraine will not fall, will achieve its peace, and will succeed”, - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky began his speech on August 24.
He went on to note that “in all his plans for Ukraine, putin got the most important thing wrong. The enemy counted our resources, our stockpiles, our equipment, but failed to take into account what was key. People. The greatest achievement of Ukraine’s independence. The people who make up our state. People who take responsibility. People who do not want russia here and who fight tooth and nail for peace and independence”.
“The russians thought we were the younger brother, but life has proved that we are strangers to them. Every trait of our character is foreign to them. Everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians. They do not know what it means when hundreds of thousands of volunteers go to defend what they hold dear. And someone who was a teacher, an entrepreneur, a farmer becomes a warrior. For me, it is always an honor to receive from such people a part of their greatness, their strength. These – and the hundreds of thousands of other patches on our defenders’ shoulders – carry a light that God sees in the heavens and that makes Him stand with us. Hundreds of thousands of names, lives, and characters are holding the front and holding our independence. I thank all our warriors who, all these years, all these days, and right now, at this very moment, are fighting so that Ukraine lives. You defended our capital, liberated the Kyiv oblast, the Kharkiv oblast, and the Kherson oblast. You are not giving up our Donbas. You will not give up Ukraine. You are the best defenders. You are the best army in Europe. Period”, - the head of state said.
He emphasized that “putin is stuck in the past”.
“He still looks at an old-style Ukraine – one that will stay silent, swallow it, endure it. That Ukraine exists nowhere except in his “little folders of reports”. Our state has long been different. Not an observer, but a player. Not a victim, but a fighter. We will not let them seize the initiative, deceive Europe and the entire world into thinking that they simply need to give up the Donbas, and everything will be over soon. We have no illusions. We don't trust them. We are not going to save the kremlin half a million soldiers. Russia keeps pushing back the dates when they will “definitely, any day now, take the entire Donetsk oblast”. It will keep pushing those dates back. Ukraine is different, and it does not give away what is its own. Russia does not want peace. It wants mobilization. Well, we take this in with a cool head. We act. We have to strengthen our military, have everything needed to hold our defense, our warriors must be supplied and equipped with everything so that the replenishment of the enemy army can be turned into fertilizer for our soil”, - Zelensky said.
He called for Europe, America, and the world to stand united with Ukraine:
“I am glad that the United States has lost all illusions about whether russia truly wants to end this war. I believe that America will lose all its contradictions and phobias about russia. The russians must be brought to the negotiating table. There finally must be sanctions that will make them howl. Ukraine must be given everything that will force them to end the war. And this is possible. About everything that protects Ukraine today, we were first told, “Impossible”, then, “Very difficult”, and then, “Not so fast”. And then America made a decision. It worked. And America’s strength was absolute. We are not asking you to fight for us. Give Ukraine everything it needs to stop this war, to stop it faster than putin can start the next one. To prevent that, we must act together. Europe must be Europe. United, ambitious, brave. China should no longer remain silent. When someone puts on a sailor’s uniform and cap and, badly pronouncing some words, talks about a nuclear strike, China must respond, must cool their ardor. China must prove its ambition to be one of the world’s leaders, not only economically and technologically, but also as a civilization – making it clear that no dictators have the right to threaten the planet with their old warheads”, - Zelensky urged, adding that Ukraine and the world together are capable of stopping putin.