Dear Ukrainians!

Today is Ukraine's Independence Day. The thirty-fifth anniversary. A national holiday whose flavor has been greatly changed by the war. Sixteen hundred and forty-three days of full-scale war.

Now it is really very, very difficult for all of us, but some force is holding us tightly by the hand, in fact, not at all invisible. This is the power of a mutual circle - support for each other, the absence of doubts in those who are nearby, faith in all Ukrainians. And until this circle of ours is broken by the enemy, Ukraine will not fall. And it will achieve its peace, and it will be able to.

In all his plans for Ukraine, Putin made a major mistake. The enemy counted our resources, our warehouses, our equipment, but did not take into account the key thing: people are the main achievement of Ukraine's Independence. People who make up our state. Who take responsibility. Who do not want Russia to be here, and who are gnawing at peace and Independence.

The "Russians" considered us their younger brother, but life has proven that we are strangers to them. All the traits of our character, everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians, are alien to them.

They don't know what it's like when hundreds of thousands of volunteers go to defend their homeland. And someone who was a teacher, entrepreneur, farmer becomes a warrior. It's always an honor for me to receive from such people a piece of their greatness, their strength. These and hundreds of thousands of other chevrons on the shoulders of our defenders are charged with the light that God sees in the sky and takes our side.

Hundreds of thousands of names, destinies, and characters hold the front, hold our Independence.

I thank all our soldiers who, all these years, all these days, and right now, at this moment, are fighting so that Ukraine can live.

You defended our capital, you liberated Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson regions. You will not give up our Donbas, you will not give up Ukraine. You are the best defenders. You are the best army in Europe. Period.

And this is pure truth, because our army stands not only on doctrines and standards, but also has a heart - a heart that does not need additional orders for courage.

When you race in a pickup truck, rescuing our wounded soldiers, who are already being hunted by Russian drones, and in less than a minute you pull out soldiers – not even from your unit, but definitely from your own kind. Ukrainian kind. This act of the Hero of Ukraine Vladislav Polskyi flew around the entire country. We… we are already defeating Russia with all this: with will, technology, resilience, dignity. With those pure feelings that live in us despite the war.

We retained our tenderness, even though we could have become brutal. We retained the habit of being the first to help, without asking if it was your problem. We retained the human in us. When the whole yard welcomes you from captivity. When an elderly couple is photographed in cherry blossoms. And the Odessa minibus driver sings to the passengers to cheer them up after a night of strikes. When the entire village restores a stork's nest. When they carry their brother on a prosthesis the last meters to Hoverla, because that is what it means not to abandon your own. When a son who has just learned to walk hugs his wounded father-soldier.

All these and hundreds of other shots of our lives are living proof: we have not become calloused as a whole country, we fight as a whole country, laugh and cry as a whole country, love as a whole country. And this makes us a hundred times stronger than Russia.

And a hundred times stronger than all their tanks in the parades is this girl of ours. Taisiya Onofriychuk. She was five when Ukraine last won gold at the world. 13 years later, it happened again. Despite all their attacks, all their destruction, all their evil, we find this ability within ourselves - the ability to win and do the impossible.

There are no small feats in a big war. And each such achievement by our people can actually trigger thousands of chain reactions throughout the country.

Someone, inspired by these emotions, will return to their laptop or machine with renewed vigor, so that our power is more precise, faster, and more painful to the enemy. To do more.

In reality, our defense industry today is a giant that tempers Independence 24/7. And we must do more. Tens of thousands of IRCs perform extremely dangerous missions at the front and have already saved thousands of soldiers. But we must do more. Our naval drones are in action: the enemy had a fleet, it is becoming scrap. But we must sink more. Our mid-strikes cut off their logistics. Our long-range capability cuts off their profits. Thousands of our deep strikes have already been seen by Moscow, Tuapse, Tula, Ryazan, "Olenya", Omsk, and dozens more points where our Ukrainian justice has already flown. Russia must see more of such justice. "Flamingos" should not be a rare species, but a mass "bird". They should "winter" in Russia.

I thank everyone who has been working in production for these four years and right now and is raising our defense industry. This is our pride. But it does not blind us. We see what Putin is doing and what he wants. A solution must be found against his ballistic terror, and this bet of his should not be played.

Ukraine will do it. Ukraine has already solved problems that seemed insurmountable at the beginning. Remember the day when 40 “Shaheeds” flew to Kyiv for the first time. Someone shouted that this was the end, while someone searched and found a solution. Now we are shooting down 90% plus of the “Shaheeds”. Russia has switched to jets. We are already shooting them down, but we have to do it en masse. The same should be true with the “Banderoles”, the same should be true with their ballistics. Ukraine is doing everything for this. And it will do it. Because it has already proven more than once: our stubbornness is no match for them.

Behind these words are millions of Ukrainians. Our best virtues, skills, experience, ability to improve, grow stronger, and move forward despite everything.

I am proud of our people who find the strength to get up every morning. To do what you can. To be where you need to be.

And someone on this day rushes to the front to join the boys, because war knows no days off. Someone is just now in the operating room defeating death. And someone woke up today before dawn so that our streets would be clean, so that the harvest in our fields would be harvested, to be ready for the school year, because in a week thousands of first-graders throughout our Ukraine will hear the first bell. This is Ukraine, where, despite the fifth year of full-scale war, life is winning.

Ukraine remains itself. Ukraine is proud of its own. Its Kharkiv. Truly unconquered. Its Dnieper. Truly unstoppable, working and saving without pause. Zaporizhia and its steely character. Odessa, its optimism in people who are able to charge the sun and overcome the Russian darkness. We are proud of all our cities: our Chernihiv, Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, Kramatorsk, Nikopol, for each, every city and village that is geographically close to the front, but very, very far from the "rashka" in terms of values. I thank you, our gate. Thank you for standing strong.

Dear people!

I am grateful to you for your confidence in Ukraine, in our army, and in our state. The strength of such faith is a significant achievement of our time. Not to doubt Ukraine is not when it is easy or trendy, but because it cannot be otherwise.

I really want us to preserve this. To be confident in the state, the army, in ourselves, in everyone around us, on whom you can count and who counts on you.

On this day, Independence Day, it's worth thinking about. Realizing four things: what we've already achieved, where we are now, what lies ahead, and what we need to do.

Putin is stuck in the past. He still looks at the old-style Ukraine – the one that will keep quiet, swallow, and tolerate. There is no such Ukraine anywhere, anywhere anymore, except for his “stupid guy with reports.” Our state has long been different. Not an observer, but a player. Not a victim, but a fighter.

We will not let them seize the initiative, deceive Europe and the whole world that they just need to give up Donbas and everything will be over quickly. There are no illusions. They have no faith. We will not save the Kremlin half a million soldiers. Russia constantly postpones the dates when they will definitely take the entire Donetsk region. It will continue to postpone. Ukraine is different and does not give its own.

Russia does not want peace - it wants mobilization. Well, let's take it with a cool head. Let's act. We must strengthen the army, have everything to maintain defense. The soldiers must be provided and equipped with everything to turn the replenishment of the enemy army into fertilizer for our land.

Putin hopes that we are tired. We know that he is mortal. He never understood us. Now he will not have time. You wanted to take all of our Ukraine, all of our land, but in return you lost your refineries, your fleet, your profits and your entire generation, which you put in a meat grinder. You wanted us off the map, now you are not on the international agenda of the future civilization. For twenty-seven years, the head of Russia has been talking about greatness, and Russia is standing in lines for gasoline.

We must be united and put pressure on them. Ukraine, Europe, America, the world. I am glad that the States have lost all illusions about whether Russia really wants to end this war. I believe that all contradictions and phobias about Russia will disappear in America. We must put the "Russians" at the negotiating table. We must finally impose sanctions after which they will howl. We must give Ukraine everything that will force them to end the war. And it is possible.

About everything that protects Ukraine today, we were first told “impossible,” then “very difficult,” then “not so fast.” And then America made the decision. It worked. And America’s power was unconditional.

We are not asking to fight for us. Give Ukraine everything to stop this war, to stop it faster than Putin can start the next one. To prevent this from happening, we must act together. Europe must be Europe. United, ambitious, courageous. China must no longer remain silent. When someone dresses up in a sailor suit and a cap and, pronouncing some words poorly, talks about a nuclear strike, China must react, must cool the dust. China must prove its ambition to be one of the world leaders, and not only economically and technologically, but also civilizationally – making it clear that no dictators should threaten the planet with their old warheads.

Ukraine and the world together can stop this. This alley of our gratitude proves: the planet is full of brave people. And there is still plenty of room for new deeds and new gratitude from Ukraine.

We remember everyone who was with us in the most difficult times. We believe in everyone who will continue to be with us. This friendship today is also a manifestation of the best human qualities that exist in Ukraine and its partners. And therefore, nothing will shake the coalition that Ukraine has gathered around itself. There are more people on the side of Ukraine. There are more countries on the side of truth. And Ukraine has a lot of such friends, and there is no alley in the world that would contain the names of everyone who has a Ukrainian heart. Everyone who is now with Ukraine, with our army, with our people. And all this is not charity, not mercy, but the achievement of our state. Ukraine, which has not asked for a long time, but Ukraine, which offers, motivates, unites. Which wants peace. Very much. And which will gain it.

Dear Ukrainians! Dear Ukrainians!

Thirty-five years ago, Ukraine was reborn. It restored its Independence. It was not given or borrowed – it was fought for. They risked for it, they gave their lives for it, so that all the deeds of previous generations would become this day – August 24, 1991. Then Ukraine's time came. But no one promised that it would be easy and carefree.

On February 24, 2022, history tested our Independence. It asked us the question: who are we? A crowd or a people? Weaklings or warriors? A buffer between civilization and orcs or a state? I thank the millions of Ukrainians who gave and continue to give an answer in favor of Ukraine, in favor of Independence.

We have been gnawing at it – yes – for 1643 days. Boldly, steadfastly, stubbornly. And we meet this day with special emotions, a spectrum of completely different feelings accumulated during the war. Ukrainians are proud of themselves, but without pomp, rejoice modestly, congratulate each other, knowing the price of Independence. Our eyes are full of tears and hope at the same time, we are in pain, but we are learning to be stronger than all their evil. We are all tired, but we do not complain for a long time. Ukraine, of course, really wants peace, but is not ready to just take it and surrender.

Over these 35 years, we have heard many predictions about us, about ourselves. And almost all of them have not come true. They said that the state would not be established, that we would not withstand the upheavals, and on February 24 – that we would last only a few days. And we have been holding on all this time – the time of the War of Independence.

The struggle for it, the struggle for freedom of all past generations, was so desperate that some in the world said of us: “Crazy.” Ukrainians have always done everything to one day say: “My God! We are free!”

Thirty-five years ago, this day came. And the day when there will be peace in Ukraine will also come. We are all people, we all want to live not in "historical" times, but simply in quiet, calm, safe times. In a peaceful Ukraine. Which was able. Which survived. Preserved itself and its Independence. This is what we are fighting for. This is what we stand for. With faith in each other, in our Defense Forces, in our state.

Take care of yourself and those around you, take care of the memory of all the heroes who gave their lives so that our Ukraine could live. Take care of your state, take care of your Independent!

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!