Volodymyr Zelensky: 'We gnawed at the invaders every day', Address to nation, Anniversary of invasion - 2023

24 February 2023, Ukraine

Great people of great Ukraine!

A year ago on this day, from the same place around seven in the morning, I appealed to you with a brief statement, lasting only 67 seconds. They covered two of the most important things, both then and now. The fact that Russia started a full-scale war against us—and the fact that we are strong. We are ready for anything. We will defeat everyone. Because we are Ukraine!

This is how it began on February 24, 2022. The longest day of our lives. The most difficult day in our recent history. We woke up early and haven’t fallen asleep since that day.

Some were afraid, some were shocked, some didn’t know what to say, but everyone felt what to do. There were traffic jams on the roads, but many people went to get weapons. There were queues. Someone was staying in the line at the borders, but many of them—at the military commissariats and territorial defense offices.

We did not raise the white flag, but began to defend the blue-yellow one. We didn’t get scared, didn’t break down, didn’t give up. The border guards from Snake island and the route along which they sent the “Russian warship” became the symbol of [our resistance].

Our faith was strengthened. Our spirit was strengthened. We survived the first day of a full-scale war. We didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, but we definitely understood: we have to fight for every tomorrow!

And we fought. And we gnawed [at the invaders] every day. And we survived the second day. And then—the third. Three days, which were given to us for life. They threatened that we would cease to exist in 72 hours. But we survived on the fourth day. And then then the fifth. And today we have been standing for exactly one year. And we still know: we have to fight for every tomorrow!

I’m grateful to everyone who keeps our resistance going. These are all our defenders. Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ground troops, our infantry and tankers. Air Force and Navy. Artillery, air defense, paratroopers, scouts, border guards. SSO, SBU, National Guard, police, territorial defense—all of our security and defense forces. Thank you, Ukraine still stands. We endured the fierce February and the fierce beginning of the war.

Spring is coming. New attacks, new wounds, new pain. Everyone saw the real nature of our enemy. Shelling of the maternity hospital, the drama theater in Mariupol, Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Freedom Square in Kharkiv, and the station in Kramatorsk. We saw Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka. The whole world clearly understood what “Russian peace” actually means. What is Russia capable of?

At the same time, the world saw what Ukraine is capable of. These are new heroes. Defenders of Kyiv, defenders of Azovstal. New feats performed by entire cities. Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Hostomel, Volnovakha, Bucha, Irpin, Okhtyrka. Hero cities. The capital of indomitability. New symbols. And with that—new assessments and forecasts for Ukraine.

The first month of the war. And the first turning point in the war. The first changes in the world’s perception of Ukraine. It did not fall for three days. It stopped the second army of the world.

We suffered from new blows every day, we learned about new tragedies every day, but we persevered thanks to those who gave their all every day, for the sake of others.

This is all about our medics who rescue wounded soldiers on the front lines, who perform operations under fire, who give birth in bomb shelters, and stay on duty for days and weeks, like our rescuers and firefighters who pull people out of rubble and fires 24/7. And our railway workers, who without sleep or stop have evacuated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.

And then there were the first offensives, the first acquisitions, the first liberated territories. The first and not the last Chornobayivka. The expulsion of the occupiers from Kyiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast and Chernihiv Oblast. Our “Stugna”. “Wilha”. Our “Neptune” and the cruiser “Moscow”, which went to the bottom [of the sea]. The first Ramstein, and the second Lend-Lease in all of entire history.

Ukraine surprised the world. Ukraine inspired the world. Ukraine united the world. A thousand words can be said for the proof, but a few are enough. HIMARS, Patriot, Abrams, IRIS-T, Challenger, NASAMS, Leopard.

I’m grateful to all our partners, allies and friends who stand side by side with us this year. I am glad that the international anti-Putin coalition has grown so much that it needs a separate address. I will make it soon. Necessarily.

I also thank our foreign policy army. Divisions of our diplomats, ambassadors, representatives in international organizations and institutions. All those who beat the occupiers with the fire and sword of international law seek new sanctions, the recognition of a terrorist state as a terrorist state.

The war changed the fate of many families. It rewrote the stories of our families. It changed our customs and traditions. Previously, grandfathers told their grandchildren how they beat the Nazis. Now the grandchildren tell their grandfathers how they beat the Russians. Earlier, mothers and grandmothers wove scarves, now they weave camouflage nets. Earlier, children asked Santa for smartphones and gadgets, but now they donate pocket money and collect funds for our soldiers.

In fact, every Ukrainian lost someone during the year. Father, son, brother, mother, daughter, sister. Beloved person. A close friend, colleague, neighbor, acquaintance. My condolences.

Almost everyone has at least one contact in their phone that will never pick up the phone again. Will not respond to SMS “How are you?”. These two simple words acquired a new meaning during the year of the war. Every day, millions of Ukrainians wrote or asked this question of their relatives and friends, millions of times. Every day someone never received a response.

Every day, the occupiers killed relatives and friends.

We will not erase their names either from the telephone or from our own memory. We will never forget them. We will never forgive this. We will never rest until the Russian murderers are punished: Punishment by the international tribunal, God’s judgment, our soldiers. Or all of them together.

The verdict is obvious. Nine years ago, the neighbor became an aggressor. A year ago, the aggressor became an executioner, looter and terrorist. We have no doubt that they will be held accountable. We have no doubt that victory awaits us.

We felt it in the summer. We have passed 100 days of war. We received the status of a candidate for the EU, returned Snake Island, heard the first “cotton” in Crimea, saw fireworks at the warehouses of the occupier and the Antonov bridge.

August was the first month when the invaders did not take any Ukrainian city. Threats and ultimatums about denazification have changed to gestures of goodwill. And we felt then: our victory is inevitable. It is close. It will be soon.

And then it was autumn, and our counterattack. The liberation of Izyum, Balaklia, Kupyansk, Lyman, Kherson Oblast and the city of Kherson. We saw how people met our military there. How they protected the Ukrainian flag. How they waited for Ukraine.

Now I want to address to those who are still waiting for [liberation]. To our citizens who are currently under temporary occupation: Ukraine did not leave you, did not forget about you, did not give up on you. One way or another we will liberate all of our lands. We will do everything to return Ukraine. And to everyone who is currently forced to stay abroad: we will do everything to return you to Ukraine, to make it possible [to return].

We will fight and return each of our captives. And only this all together will be a victory.

We can see it even in the dark, despite constant massive missile strikes and power outages. We see the light of this victory.

In the memories of the first feelings of February 24, 2022, people mention shock, pain, uncertainty. A year after a full-scale invasion, the confidence in victory is 95%. The main emotion we feel when we think about Ukraine is pride.

Pride in every Ukrainian man and woman. Pride in us. We became one big army. We became a team where someone finds, someone packs, someone brings, but everyone contributes.

I’m grateful to our people, to our multi-million army of volunteers and caring citizens who can collect and get everything we need.

We became a single entity. Our journalists and media are fighting against lies and panic as a united front.

We became one family. There are no more strangers among us. Ukrainians today are all their own. Ukrainians sheltered Ukrainians, opened their homes and hearts to those who were forced to escape from the war.

We withstood all threats, shelling, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, kamikaze drones, blackouts, cold. We are stronger than before.

It was a year of resilience. A year of fortitude. A year of courage. A year of pain. A year of hope. A year of aging. A year of unity.

A year of indomitability. The fierce year of indomitability.

It’s main conclusion: we persevered. We were not defeated. And we will do everything to win this year!

Glory to Ukraine!

Claude Malhuret: 'Putin is mad as blood is red', Statement on Russia's invasion of Ukraine - 2022

1 March 2022, Paris, France

Déclaration du Gouvernement, suivie d’un débat sur cette déclaration, en application de l’article 50-1 de la Constitution, relative à la décision de la Russie de faire la guerre à l’Ukraine

Monsieur le Président,

Monsieur le Premier ministre,

Mes chers Collègues,

L’invasion de l’Ukraine pourrait bien être le premier clou sur le cercueil de la dictature de Poutine, comme l’invasion de l’Afghanistan fut le premier clou sur le cercueil de l’Union Soviétique.

Poutine est fou comme le sang est rouge. Ce n’est pas une insulte, c’est un diagnostic. Le discours sépulcral du 21 septembre ne laisse aucun doute. Un paranoïaque doublé d’un mythomane. Plus il élimine toute contradiction, plus il échappe à la réalité, au profit de son idée fixe et funeste, se venger de la chute de l’URSS. Comme beaucoup de dictateurs, ce Caligula botté souffre d’une autre infirmité. Ceux qui ont découvert stupéfaits la taille grotesque de la table où il recevait notre Président ont cru à une manœuvre pour l’humilier. Les réunions ubuesques avec ses ministres à 20 mètres révèlent la vérité : le COVID le terrorise. Néron se faisait raser par ses filles de peur d’être égorgé, Staline faisait goûter ses aliments, lui, chef de la deuxième force nucléaire au monde, qui se fait filmer dans des fausses chasses à l’ours, pétoche devant le virus comme un matamore fuyant devant une souris. En face de lui, un homme, debout, Zelensky.

Lorsqu’on ignore la réalité, elle se venge. Il voulait diviser l’Europe, il la cimente. Ridiculiser l’OTAN, il la retrempe. Humilier les États-Unis, il ressuscite Biden après Kaboul. Rallier à lui les régimes autoritaires, la Chine s’inquiète, la Turquie montre les dents, le Kazakhstan refuse l’envoi de ses soldats. Il pensait prendre l’Ukraine en trois jours, il est embourbé pour longtemps.

Confiné dans son bunker, il n’a pas vu le monde changer. Il se croit au temps où ses complices du KGB et du Politburo mataient par des chars la Hongrie ou la Tchécoslovaquie et où lui-même rasait Grozny à l’abri des caméras. Il n’a pas compris que les images des smartphones font le tour du monde en une seconde et qu’en 2022 personne, pas même les russes, n’est prêt à accepter les bombardements de Kiev et les morts.

S’il en est arrivé là, c’est en partie à cause de nos propres lâchetés. L’invasion de la Géorgie, l’annexion de la Crimée, le Donbass, la Transnistrie, les crimes contre l’humanité en Tchétchénie ou en Syrie, les centaines d’assassinats et les milliers d’emprisonnements en Russie même, nous avons laissé faire. Quelques discours à l’ONU sur les droits de l’homme et le droit international et puis circulez, y a rien à voir.

Ce n’est pas seulement par lâcheté que nous n’avons rien fait, c’est parce que les démocraties ont en leur sein une cinquième colonne, le plus souvent soudoyée par le Kremlin, qui reprend mot à mot sur les réseaux antisociaux, avec les milliers de faux comptes, de trolls et de bots pilotés depuis Moscou, sur les radios et télés RT, Sputnik et hélas d’autres, la propagande de Poutine : l’Ukraine n’existe pas, elle est dans la sphère russe, ses dirigeants sont des nazis.

Wladimir Zemmour, Joseph Vissarionovitch Mélenchon et Anastasia Le Pen sont depuis longtemps les généraux en chef de cette cinquième colonne, mais leurs dernières déclarations atteignent des sommets. Mélenchon le 18 janvier dernier : "Qui ne ferait pas la même chose avec un voisin pareil, un pays lié à une puissance qui les menace continuellement ? ». Le Pen : « Mon point de vue sur l’Ukraine coïncide avec celui de la Russie. ». Zemmour : « Il faut arrêter de faire de Poutine l’agresseur, c’est Poutine l’agressé. Poutine est l’allié qui serait le plus fiable ».

Depuis que tout le monde a compris leurs mensonges, ils ont réinventé le « Oui mais ». Ils condamnent car ne pas le faire serait un suicide électoral, mais ils ne changent pas d’avis : tout est de la faute de l’Occident, surtout pas de sanctions et attention à la troisième guerre mondiale. Mélenchon jeudi dernier continue ses bobards : « Je n’ai jamais soutenu Poutine, jamais ». Le pire c’est Zemmour, le trois fois condamné pour racisme, qui crache sur les résistants ukrainiens et sur les réfugiés, qui donne des leçons de patriotisme, lui qui après s’être soustrait au service militaire, n’a pas hésité à se rendre samedi sur le plateau des Glières. Ses propos souillent les tombes des maquisards.

Ces paillassons de Poutine après en avoir été les caniches, sont candidats à la Présidence de la République. Ils ont condamné le dictateur du bout des lèvres, mais leurs trolls inondent les réseaux de messages à sa gloire et leurs députés européens ont refusé de voter l’aide à l’Ukraine.

Pendant des années nous avons tenté de faire comprendre qui était Poutine. Nous étions trop peu nombreux face aux idiots utiles de l’Europe, en Allemagne qui s’est mise dans les griffes de l’ours et de son gaz par l’incroyable erreur d’avoir cédé aux verts sur le nucléaire, en France ou le fond de l’air, fait d’un gaullisme du pauvre qui n’a rien à voir avec le gaullisme et d’un antiaméricanisme héritier de la vieille droite anti-anglosaxonne et de la vieille gauche anticapitaliste, conduit certains à prêcher l’équidistance entre Amérique et Russie, demain entre Amérique et Chine, sans comprendre qu’il y a d’un côté le camp de la démocratie et de l’autre celui des dictatures. Trop peu nombreux, nous étions par là-même trop faibles.

Le 24 février 2022 restera dans l’histoire comme le jour prodigieux du grand basculement. Le plus grand succès de Poutine, c’est de nous avoir ouvert les yeux. Nous nous sommes réveillés bien tard. Mais nous nous sommes réveillés.

Pour la première fois nos sanctions sont plus que des coups de griffe. Le blocage des réserves de la banque centrale, la déconnexion de SWIFT, l’arrêt de Nord Stream II, la saisie des avoirs des corrompus, la fermeture des espaces aériens, le bonheur de la livraison d’armes aux ukrainiens par l’Allemagne elle-même, mouton devenu non pas tigre mais au moins lionceau. Et enfin, enfin, la chasse aux agents de désinformation. Voilà 5 ans que je demande la fermeture de RT, de Sputnik et de leurs satellites, 5 ans qu’on me répond que ce serait bafouer la liberté d’expression. On vient enfin de comprendre que les organes de propagande du FSB n’ont rien à voir avec la liberté d’expression. Mesdames et Messieurs les dirigeants européens, permettez-moi d’ajouter à mes félicitations pour ces sanctions une supplique : qu’elles soient précises, sans exception, efficaces, non contournables et prolongées. Et surtout qu’elles soient rapides et accrues, car les résistants ukrainiens, aussi héroïques soient-ils, ne tiendront pas longtemps par leurs seuls moyens. Et enfin, qu’elles soient accompagnées du message clair, que l’assassinat de Zelensky entrainerait une riposte bien plus massive encore. Quant à la cinquième colonne, elle va se déchaîner dans toute l’Europe pour relayer les menaces du tyran et expliquer que, comme vous êtes responsables de la guerre en Ukraine, vous serez responsables demain de la troisième guerre mondiale dont Poutine brandit la menace. Pour l’heure, autre miracle, personne n'y croit. Comment penser qu’un hypocondriaque qui s’ausculte toute la journée soit prêt à mourir sous les frappes ou à finir ses jours dans un abri anti-atomique comme Caïn dans son souterrain ?

Lorsque nous aurons pris ces sanctions et que nous nous serons préparés à un long conflit, car cette guerre sera longue, il nous faudra relever un autre défi, plus redoutable encore. Celui du rétablissement de la puissance de l’Europe. « L’Europe ne se fera qu’au bord du tombeau » disait Nietzsche. Propos prophétique car l’Europe est née des charniers de la deuxième guerre mondiale et elle n’a progressé qu’en surmontant ses crises. Celle du COVID a permis un pas de géant par la mutualisation des dettes du plan de relance. L’invasion sanglante de l’Ukraine a fait comprendre à tous, à commencer par les allemands, ce que le Président de la République ne cesse d’expliquer depuis le début de son mandat, c’est que l’Europe ne sera jamais une puissance si ses États ne se réarment pas et si une défense commune ne voit pas le jour. Jamais Poutine n’aurait pu nous faire un meilleur cadeau.

Pour l’heure, nous allons participer à cette guerre par les mesures déjà prises, par notre unité avec nos alliés européens et américains et par notre fermeté face au tyran qui s’est lancé dans une aventure sans issue.

Mais ce n’est pas nous qui allons la gagner. Les seuls qui peuvent la gagner, ce sont deux peuples. Le peuple russe qui, pour la première fois, malgré une répression impitoyable et une propagande effrénée, est en train de comprendre que Poutine le conduit vers le gouffre. Le sursaut viendra-t-il de la rue, ou de quelques Brutus qui comprendront l’urgence d’agir avant qu’il ne soit trop tard, je ne sais. Mais le dénouement pourrait bien surprendre.

Et surtout, ceux qui vont gagner cette guerre, ceux qui sont déjà en train de la gagner quel qu’en soit le coût, ceux qui nous donnent une grandiose leçon de courage, guidés par un Président devenu en quelques jours un héros de la trempe d’un de Gaulle ou d’un Churchill, Wolodomir Zelensky, ceux qui vont gagner cette guerre, c’est le peuple ukrainien soudé contre Poutine et prêt au sacrifice pour défendre sa liberté et la nôtre, sa démocratie et les valeurs européennes qu’il partage. Puissions-nous les admirer, les acclamer, les soutenir et nous montrer dignes d’eux.

Please forgive the limitations of computer translation services

Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Dear Colleagues, The invasion of Ukraine could well be the first nail in the coffin of Putin's dictatorship, just as the invasion of Afghanistan was the first nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union. Putin is mad as the blood is red. It's not an insult, it's a diagnosis. The sepulchral speech of September 21 leaves no doubt. A paranoid doubled as a mythomaniac. The more he eliminates all contradiction, the more he escapes reality, in favor of his fixed and fatal idea, to take revenge for the fall of the USSR. Like many dictators, this booted Caligula suffers from another infirmity. Those who were stunned to discover the grotesque size of the table where he received our President believed in a maneuver to humiliate him. The ubiquitous meetings with his ministers 20 meters away reveal the truth: the COVID terrorizes him. Nero had his daughters shaved for fear of having his throat slit, Stalin had his food tasted, he, the head of the second nuclear force in the world, who is filmed in fake bear hunts, petoche in front of the virus like a braggart fleeing from a mouse. In front of him, a man, standing, Zelensky. When we ignore reality, it takes revenge. He wanted to divide Europe, he cements it. To ridicule NATO, he retempers it. Humiliating the United States, he resurrects Biden after Kabul. Rallying the authoritarian regimes to him, China is worried, Turkey shows its teeth, Kazakhstan refuses to send its soldiers. He thought he could take Ukraine in three days, he is stuck for a long time. Confined to his bunker, he has not seen the world change. He believes he is in the time when his accomplices in the KGB and the Politburo subdued Hungary or Czechoslovakia with tanks and when he himself razed Grozny away from the cameras. He did not understand that images from smartphones go around the world in a second and that in 2022 no one, not even Russians, is ready to accept the bombings of kyiv and the deaths. got there, it's partly because of our own cowardice. The invasion of Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, Donbass, Transnistria, the crimes against humanity in Chechnya or Syria, the hundreds of murders and the thousands of imprisonments in Russia itself, we have left TO DO. A few speeches at the UN on human rights and international law and then move on, there's nothing to see. It's not just out of cowardice that we haven't done anything, it's because democracies have within them a fifth column, most often bribed by the Kremlin, which takes word for word on anti-social networks, with the thousands of fake accounts, trolls and bots piloted from Moscow, on RT radio and TV, Sputnik and alas others, Putin's propaganda: Ukraine does not exist, it is in the Russian sphere, its leaders are Nazis. Wladimir Zemmour, Joseph Vissarionovitch Mélenchon and Anastasia Le Pen have long been the chief generals of this fifth column, but their latest declarations reach new heights. Mélenchon on January 18: "Who wouldn't do the same with such a neighbour, a country linked to a power that continually threatens them?" Le Pen: "My point of view on Ukraine coincides with that of Russia Zemmour: "We have to stop making Putin the aggressor, it's Putin the attacked. Putin is the ally who would be the most reliable".Since everyone understood their lies, they reinvented the "Yes but. They condemn because not to do so would be electoral suicide, but they do not change their minds: everything is the fault of the West, especially no sanctions and beware of the Third World War. Mélenchon last Thursday continues his canards: "I have never supported Putin, never. The worst is Zemmour, the three times condemned for racism, who spits on the Ukrainian resistance fighters and on the refugees, who gives lessons in patriotism, he who, after withdrawing from military service, did not hesitate to go to the he Glières plateau. His words soil the graves of the guerrillas. These doormats of Putin after having been poodles, are candidates for the Presidency of the Republic. They paid lip service to the dictator, but their trolls flood the networks with messages praising him and their MEPs refused to vote for aid to Ukraine. For years we tried to make people understand who Putin was. There were too few of us in the face of the useful idiots of Europe, in Germany, which fell into the clutches of the bear and its gas through the incredible error of having yielded to the Greens on nuclear power, in France or the bottom of the air, made of a Gaullism of the poor which has nothing to do with Gaullism and of an anti-Americanism heir to the old anti-Anglo-Saxon right and the old anti-capitalist left, leads some to preach equidistance between America and Russia, tomorrow between America and China, without understanding that there is on one side the camp of democracy and on the other that of dictatorships. Too few, we were thereby too weak. February 24, 2022 will go down in history as the prodigious day of the great changeover. Putin's greatest achievement is to have opened our eyes. We woke up very late. But we woke up. For the first time our penalties are more than scratches. The blocking of central bank reserves, the disconnection of SWIFT, the shutdown of Nord Stream II, the seizure of the assets of the corrupt, the closure of airspaces, the happiness of the delivery of arms to the Ukrainians by Germany she -even, a sheep that has become not a tiger but at least a lion cub. And finally, finally, the hunt for agents of disinformation. For 5 years I have been asking for the closure of RT, Sputnik and their satellites, 5 years that I have been told that it would violate freedom of expression. We have finally come to understand that the propaganda organs of the FSB have nothing to do with freedom of expression. Ladies and gentlemen European leaders, allow me to add to my congratulations on these sanctions a request: that they be precise, without exception, effective, non-circumventable and prolonged. And above all that they be rapid and increased, because the Ukrainian resistance fighters, as heroic as they are, will not hold out for long on their own. And finally, that they be accompanied by the clear message that the assassination of Zelensky would lead to an even more massive response. As for the fifth column, it will be unleashed throughout Europe to relay the tyrant's threats and explain that, as you are responsible for the war in Ukraine, you will be responsible tomorrow for the Third World War, of which Putin is brandishing the threat. For now, another miracle, no one believes it. How can we think that a hypochondriac who examines himself all day long is ready to die under the blows or to end his days in an anti-atomic shelter like Cain in his underground? When we have taken these sanctions and we have prepared for a long conflict, because this war will be long, we will have to take up another challenge, even more formidable. That of the restoration of the power of Europe. “Europe will only be made on the edge of the tomb” said Nietzsche. Prophetic statement because Europe was born from the mass graves of the Second World War and it only progressed by overcoming its crises. That of COVID has allowed a giant step forward by pooling the debts of the recovery plan. The bloody invasion of Ukraine made everyone understand, starting with the Germans, what the President of the Republic has been constantly explaining since the beginning of his mandate, which is that Europe will never be a power if its states do not rearm and if a common defense does not emerge. Putin could never have given us a better gift. For now, we will participate in this war by the measures already taken, by our unity with our European and American allies and by our firmness in the face of the tyrant who has launched in an adventure with no way out. But it's not us who are going to win it. The only ones who can win it are two peoples. The Russian people who, for the first time, despite ruthless repression and frantic propaganda, are realizing that Putin is leading them into the abyss. Will the start come from the street, or from a few Brutus who will understand the urgency of acting before it's too late, I don't know. But the outcome could well surprise. And above all, those who will win this war, those who are already winning it whatever the cost, those who give us a great lesson in courage, guided by a President who has become a few days a hero of the caliber of de Gaulle or Churchill, Wolodomir Zelensky, those who will win this war are the Ukrainian people united against Putin and ready to sacrifice to defend their freedom and ours, their democracy and the European values ​​it shares. May we admire them, acclaim them, support them and prove ourselves worthy of them.

Volodymyr Zelensky: 'Do Russians want the war?', Address to Russian people - 2022

25 February 2022, Kiev, Ukraine

Today I initiated a phone call with the president of the Russian federation. The result was silence. Though the silence should be in Donbass. That’s why I come with an appeal today to all citizens of Russia. Not as a president, I am appealing to the citizens of Russia as a citizen of Ukraine. We share more than 2000km of border. Around it today is your army, almost 200,000 soldiers, thousands of military units. Your leadership has approved them to make a move towards us. Towards the territory of another country. This step? This step can be the beginning of a huge war on the European continent.

The whole world is talking about what can happen any day now. A reason can appear at any moment. Any provocation. Any spark. A spark that has the potential of burning everything down.

You are told that this flame will bring freedom to the people of Ukraine. But the people of Ukraine are free. They remember their past, and are building their own future. They are building it, not destroying it, as you are told everyday on TV. Ukraine in your news and Ukraine in reality are two completely different countries. The most important difference is that ours is real.

You are being told that we are nazis. But how can a nation be called nazist after sacrificing more than 8 million lives to eradicate nazism. How can I be a nazi, when my grandfather has survived the whole war as part of the Soviet infantry, and has died a colonel in an independent Ukraine. You are told that we hate Russian culture. But how can a culture be hated? Any culture. Neighbours are always enriching each other culturally. Yet, that does not make them one entity, and does not separate people into “us” and “them”. We are different, but that is not a reason to be enemies. We want to build our own history. Peacefully, calmly, and truthfully.

You are told that I am ordering to attack the Donbass. To shoot. To bomb without questions. Although there are questions: To shoot at whom? To bomb what?

Donetsk? To which I have been dozens of times. I have seen their faces and eyes.

Artema street? On which I have been on many walks with my friends in the past.

Donbass arena? Where I have been rooting with the locals for our boys during the Euros.

Shcherbakova Park? In which we were drinking together after our team has lost

Lugansk? The home of my best friend’s mom. The place where my best friend’s father is buried.

Note that I am now speaking in Russian, yet no one in Russia understands what these names, streets, and events mean. This is all foreign to you. Unknown. This is our land. This is our history. What are you going to fight for? And against whom?

Many of you have visited Ukraine in the past. Many of you have relatives here. Some of you studied in our universities. Befriended Ukrainian people. You’re familiar with our character, with our people, our principles. You know what we cherish the most. Look inside you, listen to the voice of reason, of common sense. Hear our voices. The people of Ukraine want peace. Ukrainian authorities want peace. We want it, and we make it. We do everything in our powers. We are not alone. It’s true, Ukraine is supported by many countries. Why? Because we are not talking about peace at any cost. We are talking about peace, and about principles, justice. About everyone’s right to define their own future, of safety, and everyone’s right to live without threat. All this is important to us. All this is important for peace. I know for sure that this is also important for you. We know for sure that we don’t want war. Neither cold, hot, or hybrid.

But, if we are threatened; If someone is trying to take away our country, our freedom, our lives. The lives of our children. We are going to defend ourselves. Not attack. Defend. By attacking us, you are going to see our faces. Not backs. Our faces.

War is a big distress, and it has a big price - in all meanings of this word. People lose their money, reputation, quality of life, freedom, and most importantly, people lose their loved ones. Lose themselves. A lot of things are always lacking in war. But what is in abundance is pain, dirt, blood, and death. Thousands. Tens of thousands of deaths. You are told that Ukraine is a threat to Russia. This was not true before, not now, and won’t be in the future. You are demanding security assurances from NATO. We are also demanding assurances of our security. The security of Ukraine from you. From Russia. And from other signatories of the Budapest memorandum. Today, we are not part of random security alliances. The security of Ukraine is tied to the security of our neighbours. That is why we are now talking about the security of all Europe. But our main goal is peace in Ukraine, and the safety of our citizens. Of Ukrainians. We are determined to let everyone know about this, including you. War is going to deprive everyone of any assurances. No one will have assurances of security.

Who is going to suffer from this the most? The people.

Who does not want this more than anyone? The people.

Who can prevent all this from happening? The people.

If these people are among you. I am sure they are. Public figures, journalists, musicians, actors, athletes, scientists, doctors, bloggers, stand-up comics, tiktokers, and others. Ordinary people. Ordinary, simple people. Men, women, old, young, fathers, and most importantly - mothers. Just as much as the people in Ukraine, no matter how much they try to convince you of the opposite.

I know that my announcement will not be aired on Russian television. But the citizens of Russia have to see it. They need to know the truth. And the truth is, that this needs to stop, before it’s too late. And if the authorities of Russia don’t want to talk to us, for the sake of peace, maybe they will talk to you.

Do the people of Russia want war? I would’ve very much liked to be able to answer this, but the answer depends only on you - citizens of the Russian Federation."