“The more freedom we have, the more guarantees there will be for justice. The more guarantees, that our common enemy will be held responsible for Bykivnia, Bucha, Katyn and Smolensk,” Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, stated in a speech at the Royal Castle.
Speaking in the courtyard of the Royal Castle, the Ukrainian President stressed that “the foreign power, wanting to rule our nations, did not understand what we were striving for – it simply fell apart”.
“We stand together, shoulder to shoulder – Ukraine and Poland, and Europe, and the free world. We stand, and we stand when full-scale forces of aggression are once again thrown against our freedom. The regime that unleashed war against us will fall and bring graves to Ukraine, only to carry graves again later, both for Poland and for all our brothers and sisters in free Europe, and we fight shoulder to shoulder,” Zelensky said.
This regime, the Ukrainian president said, “brought the deportation of Ukrainians, in order to deport again others as well, whose freedom breathes in the lands that Russia intends to hijack – and we stand shoulder to shoulder.”
“The enemy wanted to bury our common independence and dissolve our national cultures in the Russian space. And we stand firm, we are with you – Ukrainians and Poles together,” – Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president declared that “we will return all this evil in an epitaph on the grave of Russian imperialism.”
“We are with you Poland, shoulder to shoulder. We will establish freedom in Europe forever. Tyranny will lose in history when it loses in Ukraine,” he said. “Moscow will not kill and St Petersburg will not divide ever again,” he declared.
He added that “in this magnificent square and in every other Polish square, as well as in all Ukrainian Maidans, there will never be Russia after our victory”.
“Is victory still far away?”
“Is victory far away? No. It is only necessary not to stop in solidarity. When a battle requires artillery, provide it. When victory requires tanks, their roar should sound on the front line,” Zelenski emphasised.
The Ukrainian president recalled that “Polish leadership was revealed in the armoured coalition” and expressed confidence that the same would be the case in the air coalition.
“This is a fight for freedom and it cannot be won in part. When Joe Biden spoke in Warsaw, he said that there is no more noble goal than freedom. We Ukrainians and Poles know this well, which is why there is no issue between us that we would not resolve in order to strengthen our common defence. That is why my visit to Poland has become another step towards victory. Thank you for the powerful defence package. Thank you for the lives we save together with you with our solidarity. Dear people of Poland. When we are free, it is a guarantee that freedom will be strong in all our neighbouring countries,” he said.
Russian crimes: Bucha, Bykivnia, Katyn and Smolensk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about Russian crimes in his speech – he mentioned Bykivnia, Bucha, Katyn and Smolensk.
“The more freedom we have, the more guarantees there will be for justice. The more guarantees, that our common enemy will be responsible for Bykivnia, Bucha, Katyn and Smolensk,” declared the Ukrainian President.
Zelensky pointed out that the Russian enemy “will bear responsibility until the end of his life here on earth and forever before God”.
“Justice will be the historic achievement of our generations. The way is paved in the same way by Ukrainians and Poles walking hand in hand. Brothers Poles, until a few generations ago, everything on which our power is based was just a task. Jerzy Giedroyć taught that there is no independent Poland without an independent Ukraine. That is what we have learnt,” he said.
The Ukrainian president assessed that “Russia will not win against Europe when Ukrainians and Poles stand shoulder to shoulder”.
“Just as we with you, Poland, stand together in this war, we will enjoy peace together. Together, shoulder to shoulder, in the European Union, together in NATO. This is the continuation of our destiny, of free nations,” Zelensky emphasised.
The Ukrainian president also expressed his conviction that “with the historical agreement between our people, we should strengthen in every way everything that we should solve for the interest and peace of our societies and this must be solved”.
“From military, political, economic cooperation to the painstaking work of historians,” he elaborated.
Acknowledgements
During his speech in the courtyard of the Royal Castle, the Ukrainian president emphasised that “human life is the highest value”.
“We respect the memory and dignity of every human being, of all those who lived before us,” he said.
“It is our mutual and absolute respect that will carry Polish and Ukrainian culture to the world, it will always carry, because we are saved through the centuries by our unity, by our determination,” he added.
“Dear Rzeszów, thank you for becoming the first place-rescuer for Ukraine. Przemyśl, Lublin, Chelm – thank you,” Zelenski said and thanked you for opening up to Ukrainians at a time when it was needed most. “Gdansk and Wroclaw, Katowice and Bialystok, Krakow and Warsaw – every city in Poland that has become so hospitable to our people, thank you,” he added.
“I thank you for the fact that Ukrainian children in Poland can live in respect, and that adult Ukrainians have been given a law by the Polish state that guarantees them the same rights and opportunities that Poles have,” he emphasised.
Zelenski thanked the volunteers who help Ukrainians in Poland, but also in Ukraine, where they risk their lives.