Zelensky: We will become not a new legend, but a state of winners
President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in his speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the occasion of the Day of Ukrainian Statehood.
The text of the speech delivered by the president was published by the President’s Office.
“We are citizens of the strongest state in the world. The state that is at war. The state, which at the same time is being reformed. And the state that ensured the most powerful unification of democracies in history. The state, which on the 155th day of Russia's full-scale war against us, has the strength to celebrate its day - the Day of Ukrainian Statehood. We ensured that the values of the free world did not remain mere rhetoric and actually started working to protect civilization. We made the European Union the most united in all the years of its existence, and it is getting stronger thanks to our strength. We ensured that all the tyrants of this world saw the potential of democracy. We, the citizens of a state, which has over a thousand years of history, did it,” the president said.
According to him, every one - military and civilians, diplomats and volunteers, civil servants and businesses, politicians, social leaders and media - every one who worked conscientiously at his and her level for the sake of one thing - for the sake of Ukraine, one’s family and Ukraine’s future.
“We, the citizens of a state, which has over a thousand years of history, did it. Over a thousand years of its culture. Over a thousand years of its character - Ukrainian character, unbreakable one. Which endured on our land under the hits of many invaders. Where have you come, the Russian army blinded by your pathetic ambitions? You’ve come up against us - those who were prepared for this crucial war for independence by dozens and dozens of generations of the Ukrainian people who lived and live here, who fought and fight here, who built and build here and who dreamed and dreams above everything else that there is no someone else’s rule over them and Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The president stressed that it's time for this dream to become a reality forever, and Ukrainians will make this dream come true.
“We will become not a new legend of heroic resistance, but a state of winners. Not 300 Spartans, worthy of films, books and plays, but the multimillion-strong nation-hero which is worthy of living, worthy of winning and which will teach others in the world how to defend themselves and how to win. We will be remembered not as those who tried, but as those who preserved, strengthened and passed our state to our children so that they could pass it on to their children. A free, strong, modern and efficient state. We will do it - we, citizens of Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The Day of Ukrainian Statehood was introduced by the Ukrainian president’s decree as of August 24, 2021. Ukraine is marking Statehood Day for the first time on July 28, 2022.
