Tusk: There can be no Europe without Ukraine

“When we, the Poles, started our journey into Europe, Pope John Paul II told the world: ‘There can be no just Europe without the independence of Poland marked on its map.’ Here and now I want to say that there can be no just Europe without the independence of Ukraine marked on its map. There can be no secure Europe without secure Ukraine. Simply put, there can be no Europe without Ukraine," President of the European Council Donald Tusk said at a special sitting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on occasion of the fifth anniversary of the start of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He added that he would always remember the blue flags with golden stars raised on the Khreshchatyk Street in Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity and the EU anthem "Ode to Joy", which was heard throughout Ukraine.

 “I often say to my colleagues in Brussels: do not teach them [Ukrainians] to be Europe - learn from them what Europe is. Let me now repeat the words that I once told the EU leaders: only those who stand in solidarity with Ukraine, has the right to be called a European, and those, who are ready to sell Ukraine, sell the future of Europe," Tusk added.

In this context, he noted that it is not by chance that those politicians, who cast doubt on European integration, “resort to casting doubt on the integrity of Ukraine.”

It should be noted that Tusk delivered his speech in the Ukrainian language.