President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published an address to Ukrainians on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale attack — the fourth year since Russia “took Kyiv in three days”. He recorded it in his office in the bunker, from where he made his first telephone calls to world leaders after the invasion began.
It was from this office that he spoke with then US President Joe Biden and heard him offer to help him leave the country. According to Zelenskyy, he replied that he needed weapons, not a taxi.
On that day, Ukraine made its choice — to fight.
“Our people did not raise a white flag, but defended the blue and yellow one. And the occupiers, who thought they would see queues with flowers, saw queues at the military registration offices,” the president recalled of the first days of the great war.
Zelenskyy listed the greatest tragedies brought about by Russia over the past four years: Mariupol, the drama theatre, Bucha, Irpin, mass graves, Antonov An-225 Mriya, the Kakhovka Dam, Kremenchuk, Kryvyy Rih, Olenivka, Kramatorsk, the railway station, Vilnyansk, a two-day-old baby killed, and a three-month-old baby killed in Odesa.
“Ukraine has a future. When history was made by entire cities — hero cities, cities of heroes,” said the president, listing the cities that Ukraine has already de-occupied.
Izyum, Balakliya, settlements in the Chernihiv and Sumy Regions, Chornobayivka, Zmiyinyy Island. And settlements in Russia, where they heard blasts for the first time.
“This is not schadenfreude. This is simply how justice sounds in Ukrainian. It sounds like ‘Stugna’, ‘Vilkha’, ‘Neptune’, and the roar with which the cruiser Moscow sank,” said the president.
Ukraine has come a long way from being supplied with body armour to producing more than three million FPV drones per year. From anti-tank “hedgehogs” and fortifications in Kyiv to the Kursk region and Operation Spider’s Web. Ukrainians are now enduring the harshest winter in history, but they have not crumbled or wavered, Zelenskyy added.
He thanked every world leader who chose Ukraine. He said he would like the US president to visit Ukraine, so that he understands who the aggressor is and who needs to be pressured.
In his address, the president listed the names of some of the fallen soldiers: Pavlo Petrychenko, Nazar “Hrinka”, “Da Vinci”, “Nord”, “Zheka”, “Tikhyy”, Matsiyevskyy, sailor Vitaliy Skakun, pilot Oleksandr Oksanchenko, Dariya Lopatina, “Sati” — thousands of heroes who gave their lives so that Ukraine could live.
The President added that everyone wants the war to end, but not in a way that would mean the end of Ukraine.
Ukraine is fighting for real security guarantees and an agreement that will be accepted by Ukrainians, Zelenskyy said.