Day 43 of the war. Address of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Ukrainians

Ukrainians, Ukrainian women, the 43rd day of the full-scale war has ended. Russia's war against Ukraine. A war that revealed the whole truth about our Ukraine, and about all other countries, and about Russia, and about the world in general. The entire war demonstrates how much was not wanted to be noticed in our state, in our people, how much the world believed in foreign propaganda and Russian myths about Ukraine, rather than what actually is. We have always been like this. We have always been brave, the bravest in the world, I am sure of this, for who else would do what Ukrainians are doing.

Who else had so much courage to constantly fight against any manifestations of tyranny, to protect freedom itself. In every election, in revolutions, and in war. Who else had such courage to fight against all the forces of Russia on land, in the air, and at sea. Who else had such courage to go barehanded against Russian armored vehicles where the Russians managed to capture something temporarily. Who else had such courage to tell the whole world that hypocrisy is a bad weapon, and not just to tell, but to convince and return honesty to the world. Who else had such courage to urge the largest global companies to forget about accounting and remember about morality.

And to teach all political leaders, whatever they were, to be even a little bit Ukrainian, to be even a little bit brave. In reality, this is our brand, this is being us. To be Ukrainian is to be brave. If everyone in the world had at least 10% of the courage that we Ukrainians have, then there would be no danger to international law at all. There would be no danger to the freedom of nations.

We will spread our courage. We will start a special global campaign. We will teach the world to be not just a little, but fully brave, like us, like Ukrainians.

Certain results already exist. First of all, they are manifested in the current sanctions against the RF. But that is the point—the results are only "certain" so far. Not yet as they need to be to stop Russia, to stop the war. Note this. For more than one day now, the media have been talking not about how sanctions against the RF are actually working, but about why these sanctions are important.

As if they are convincing themselves that they introduced the right things, that the applied restrictions are sufficient. But if the sanctions were actually working 100%, they would not have to explain so detailedly and meticulously why they are important. Therefore, I emphasize once again, more sanctions are needed, even bolder sanctions are needed. Courage must be the criterion for evaluating decisions. Courage and practicality. First and foremost, Ukrainians need weapons that will allow us to achieve victory on the battlefield.

And this will be the strongest sanction against Russia of all those that could possibly be.

We have some good diplomatic news today. Russia is gradually losing even on those platforms that it considered completely comfortable for itself. In particular, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to suspend Russia's membership in the Human Rights Council. Completely logical, completely fair, but also not without a struggle for this decision; we are grateful to those states that supported this.

Russia has long had nothing to do with the concept of human rights. Perhaps someday this will change. But for now, the Russian state and the Russian military are the greatest threat on the planet to freedom, to human security, to the concept of human rights as such. After Bucha, this is already obvious.

And work has also begun on clearing the rubble in Borodyanka. Things are significantly more terrible there. Even more victims of the Russian occupiers. And what will happen when the world learns the whole truth about what the Russian military did in Mariupol? There, on almost every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns of the Kyiv region after the withdrawal of the Russian troops. Such cruelty, such terrible crimes. More and more information is coming in that Russian propagandists are preparing, so to speak, a mirror response to the shock of all normal people at what they saw in Bucha.

They intend to show victims in Mariupol as if they were not killed by the Russian military, but as if they were killed by the Ukrainian defenders of the city. For this, the occupiers are collecting bodies from the streets, transporting them, and may use them in other places according to developed propaganda scenarios. We are dealing with invaders who have nothing left, nothing human. To justify their own murders, they take killed people simply as decorations, as propaganda props. And this is a separate war crime for which every propagandist will be held responsible.

More and more states of the world support the necessity of a full and transparent investigation of all war crimes of the Russian occupiers in Ukraine. Every murder will be uncovered, every grave will be found. All those who committed rape or looting will be identified; responsibility is inevitable.

Today, appeals continue to be made to the parliaments and peoples of neighboring states, our partners, our friends. Today it was Greece, today it was the Republic of Cyprus. I thanked them for their support of Ukraine and for joint European efforts to force Russia to peace. I urged them to do even more to stop the war.

I urged Greece to use its influence as part of the European Union to save Mariupol. I urged Cyprus to apply special measures against Russia, such as the cancellation of golden passports for Russians, as well as the blocking of yachts, the blocking of other Russian vessels located in the waters of Cyprus. Tomorrow, I plan a new address to the parliament and people of Finland.

I want to note that along with the residents of Kyiv, diplomatic representatives of other states are returning to the capital. Yesterday, the embassy of Turkey returned; today, the ambassador of Lithuania returned. Earlier, the embassy of Slovenia resumed work in Kyiv. We are sincerely grateful to the friends of Ukraine who support us exactly as it is needed now, also at the level of symbols, at the level of diplomatic gestures. This is also about courage. I look forward to the opportunity to meet with all who are with us, with all who are brave. Come back. To all the diplomats who have returned to our capital and continue to work: the presence of foreign diplomatic missions in Kyiv is the normal work of an embassy.

This is a clear signal to the aggressor that Kyiv is our capital. Not a provincial town of Russia, but the Ukrainian capital.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to do everything to repel the offensive of the Russian troops in Donbas. The occupiers' units in this direction are becoming more active and are receiving new reinforcements from Russia. We see all this, analyze every step of the enemy, and will respond. Harshly. And as a steady tradition, before recording this address, I signed decrees on honoring our bravest warriors with state awards and the title of Hero of Ukraine. 344 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been awarded. Five more military personnel became Heroes of Ukraine today.

Sincere thanks for the service to every one of our defenders. I am sincerely grateful to every one of our female defenders. Sincere thanks to the Ukrainian people for their courage. Glory to Ukraine!