President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a speech during the solemn session of the Seimas of Lithuania on the occasion of the Defenders of Freedom Day and the ceremony of awarding the Freedom Prize of the Republic of Lithuania.
The video of the speech was published by the Presidential Office.
“I am glad to greet you and I want to thank you at once for not betraying freedom for a single minute. And not only during these 323 days of cruel, inhuman Russian war - when we constantly feel your support. But for many years - when the free hearts of Lithuanians and the Lithuanian path to a united Europe inspired many people in different countries once enslaved by Russia,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He noted that Lithuania was and would continue to be one of the most sincere defenders of freedom. And this is the best way to honor the memory and feat of the heroes who defeated the empire on those winter days 32 years ago.
“Encroaching on our cities, they meant the cities of other independent states of Europe as well. Attacking Kyiv, they dreamed of attacking Vilnius. And Riga, and Warsaw, and Prague, and Chisinau. They wanted our freedom to fall. But it is they who will fall. And now they have less and less such dreams. They are losing the power they boasted about. They are only talking about whether they will manage not to lose,” the president said.
He emphasized that we must make sure that no aggressor will ever have the opportunity to dream of something similar and encroach on our freedom.
Recently, the President of Lithuania called on Western countries to give Ukraine tanks.