President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Ukrainians on the end of the 43rd day of the war against Russian occupiers.
"This war has shown all the truth about our country, about Russia, and the world in general. This war demonstrated how much about our country, our people had been overlooked. For how long the world kept believing the foreign propaganda and Russian myths about Ukraine and not what was really going on. We actually have always been… brave like that. The bravest in the world. Because who else would be doing what Ukrainians are doing? Who else had the courage to fight against any display of tyranny, to defend freedom itself?" the President said.
He stressed that Ukrainians have always shown their courage – in every election, during revolutions, and at war.
"Who else had the courage to fight all the Russian forces on land, in the air, and at sea? Who else had the courage to face Russian armored vehicles barehanded wherever Russians managed to temporarily occupy something? Who else had the courage to tell the whole world that hypocrisy is a poor weapon? And not to stop at saying that but to persuade and to bring back to the world its honesty. Who else had the courage to urge the largest global companies to forget accounting and remember morality? And to teach all the political leaders – whoever they are – to be Ukrainians at least a little… To be brave at least a little. In fact, this is our brand. This is what it means to be us. To be Ukrainians. To be brave," Zelenskyy said.
The President emphasized that, had everyone in the world had at least 10% of the courage Ukrainians had, there would be no danger to international law and the freedom of nations.
He noted that Ukrainians will spread our courage and launch "a special global campaign".
"There are already some results. First of all, they are reflected in the current sanctions against the Russian federation. But here's the point – there are only ‘some’ results so far. Not yet exactly what's needed to stop Russia. To stop the war. Note that for a while now the media has been talking not about how the sanctions against Russia really work but about why those sanctions are so important. It's like they're trying to persuade themselves that they imposed the right measures, that the restrictions that were applied are enough.
But if only the sanctions really worked one hundred percent, there would be no need to explain so thoroughly and meticulously why they're important. That's why I emphasize yet again: we need more sanctions. We need braver sanctions. Courage must be a criterion to assess decisions. Courage and practicality," Zelenskyy said.
He recalled that above all things Ukraine needed weapons that would allow us to win on a battlefield.
The President pointed out that diplomatic representatives of foreign states were coming back to Kyiv. The Embassy of Turkey had returned the day before, this day the Ambassador of Lithuania did the same. Previously the Embassy of Slovenia has resumed operations in Kyiv.
"I'm sincerely grateful to the friends of Ukraine who support us the very way we need it now, including the level of symbols, the level of diplomatic gestures. That is also about courage. And I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet everyone who's with us. Everyone who's brave. Come back. With all the diplomats who came back to our capital and who keep working. The presence of the foreign diplomatic missions in Kyiv means the normal work of the embassies, it means a clear message to the aggressor that Kyiv is our capital. Not a provincial Russian city, but the Ukrainian capital," Zelenskyy emphasized.