Russia dreams of erasing the history of Ukraine, our statehood, our identity, and denying our existence as such. To say that we never were. That we are an artificially created people, as if we are not people but a variety of plants or a species of animals. To devalue our culture, to humiliate our language, to cross out our art. Our musicians, writers, philosophers, scientists, designers, inventors, all the great rulers and all the great warriors of Kievan Rus, the Zaporozhian Sich, who were, are and will be.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said this in his address to the student community of the leading universities of Great Britain.
"16 minutes 19 seconds. This is the record of The Boat Race, the legendary Thames rowing competition between Oxford and Cambridge. And the first regatta took place on this day, June 10, almost 200 years ago," Volodymyr Zelenskyy reminded the students of a beautiful symbolic fact.
He added that he could compare the present in Ukraine with a difficult swim: against the current, waves and storms, where our state is a "stern" that sails to freedom, opposing the "russian warship," and it is vital for us to feel that we are not alone.
"For 107 days in a row, Ukraine and our people have heroically opposed the aggression of the russian federation. For many, our steadfastness has become a mystery and almost a miracle. Just as the Oxford electric bell and its design: it is still unknown exactly how it is arranged and how it works. So is Ukraine, which has been continuously generating energy for 107 days in a row, resisting the world's second army and defending itself and Europe. If Ukraine runs out of batteries, this will be a real energy crisis on the planet," the president said.
He stressed that for 107 days in a row, we are passing the test of survival. Ukraine is resisting barbarians, inhumans, dementors for one hundred seven days in a row. The armies of the one who cannot be named, according to some politicians. Whose oil, gas, etc., they cannot refuse.
"For 107 days we have resisted an enemy who has not read one of the founders of the London School of Economics, Bernard Shaw. He does not recognize the worldview that now that we have learned to fly in the air like birds, to swim underwater like fish, we lack only one thing: to learn to live on earth as humans!
An enemy who does not recognize the truth for which the rector of the University of Birmingham, Nobel Peace Prize winner and architect of the League of Nations Robert Cecil, fought. The vital need for humanity to resolve conflicts not in the trenches, but at the table. The advantage of arguments, not missiles," added Zelenskyy.
The President added that russia calls black white and white - black, declares peaceful goals, but targets peaceful cities, kills women and children, calling it self-defense.
"80 years ago, Manchester survived the Christmas bombing. This spring, the whole of Ukraine survived the Easter bombing. Eighty years ago, the Nazis razed Coventry. This year, the racists created dozens of new Coventries in Ukraine. These are Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, Kharkiv, Mariupol," Zelensky drew historical parallels, adding that russia is a nuclear state that deserves a wooden spoon for ignorance of international law and the Darwin Prize for violating it.
The President of Ukraine reminded that recently students of the University of Edinburgh exposed their professor for spreading Russian propaganda and lies while lecturing on the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, students know the truth about Ukraine and the war, they know about Ukraine through the war. Read about the shelling of Kharkiv, Zaporizhya, Odesa, Mariupol.
"Did you know that these cities are twins of Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool?" Have you heard of "Kyiv Letter"? A document from the times of Ukraine-Rus, which is more than 1000 years old, is stored in the Cambridge Library? About Queen Margaret, the first saint of Scotland, granddaughter of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaroslav the Wise? Have you heard about the founder of Donetsk - Welsh engineer John Hughes? Or about the founder of Luhansk - the Scotsman Charles Gascoigne, who built the first coal mine in Ukraine?” Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked.
He noted that russia is trying to destroy the history of Ukraine and Ukraine as such because it has a global phobia at the state level. This is a phobia of freedom. For them, it is unfamiliar, unknown, and therefore a force that is very frightening. Even if freedom is not in their country but in a neighboring country. Freedom nearby. For russia, it is dangerously close. They want to destroy it. But they lose. We are fighting for our future, they are fighting for someone else's past.
"But the time of such countries and rulers has passed. And our time is our time; this is the future. And this is an active voice. Active voice. Real voice. Voice of truth, honor, wisdom and freedom.
Let's talk in that voice today! I do not want this speech to last 16 minutes and 19 seconds. So let's finally get started! And I will be frank, I will be very candid,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy summed up.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the participants of the Copenhagen Democratic Summit that last year, the summit raised the question: where is the front line between freedom and oppression. This year the answer became obvious: it lies in Ukraine. The state border of Ukraine is the line of this confrontation.