Zelensky: Dependent and unfree Ukraine isn’t Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the great state that existed on Ukrainian land since ancient times was tried many times to enslave and destroy, but it never allowed it to be done.
"The great people of a great country and a great state that has existed on this earth since ancient times, which has been tried to enslave and destroy since ancient times. Many and many times. And which since ancient times did not allow this to be done. Never to anyone," he said in a video message on the occasion of the Day of Ukrainian Statehood, which is celebrated in Ukraine on Thursday.
He recalled the state "in which the history of Christianity in Eastern Europe began, when 1034 years ago it was christened by the Great Kyiv Prince Volodymyr. The state in which the history of indestructibility began, which is now admired by the whole of Europe and the whole world. This is our state. Our country. This is Ukraine."
"Every day we are fighting so that everyone on the planet finally understands: we are not a colony, not an enclave, not a protectorate. Not a province, not a part of foreign empires, not ‘lands in the composition’, not a union republic. Not an autonomy, not a province, but a free, independent, sovereign, indivisible and independent state," the president said.
Zelensky called Ukraine the heiress of Kyivan Rus, the Cossack state, the legal successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky,
independence and conciliarity proclaimed by the universals of the Central Rada and the Unification Act (Act Zluky).
According to Zelensky, Ukrainian soldiers feel the support of all generations of fighters for "independent" Ukraine.
"To live in captivity means not to live for us. To be dependent means not to exist. Because dependent and unfree Ukraine is not Ukraine," he said.
"That is why we will fight for our statehood to the last – the last breath, the last cartridge, the last soldier. Not ours, but the enemy's. We will live to fight and fight to live. We will not give up until we drive the last occupier out of our house. We will not stop until we liberate the last meter of Ukrainian land. We will not rest until we liberate our last village, our last hut, the last well, our last cherry, our last willow!" he said.
"It will be this way. And it will only be like this! Since for us and for the occupier, all this has completely different, polar meanings. What is a target for them is sacred for us. The fact that the names on the map are unknown to them, for us – places familiar from childhood. They carry out someone else's criminal orders, we - are our sacred duty. We are fighting for different things, so the ending of this battle will be different for everyone. By value. And even in sound. In Russian, this is the failure of a special operation. In Ukrainian – victory in the war!" he said.
