Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the people and politicians of Japan 23.03.2022

Speaker 1

Most honorable Mr. Hosoda, most honorable Ms. Santo, Mr. Prime Minister Kishida, honorable members of the Parliament of Japan, dear Japanese people. For me, the President of Ukraine, it is a great honor to address you for the first time in the history of the Parliament of Japan. Our capitals are separated by a distance of 8,193 kilometers; on average, this is 15 hours on a plane, depending on the route, but what distance is there between our feelings of freedom, between our desires to live, between our aspirations for peace? On February 24, I saw no distance, not even a millimeter between our capitals, not even a second between our feelings, because you immediately came to our aid, and I am grateful to you for this. When Russia destroyed peace for all of Ukraine, we immediately saw that in the world there are those who stand against war, stand for freedom, stand for global security, stand for the harmonious development of every society. Japan has become a leader of such a position in Asia. You immediately began working to stop this cruel war unleashed by the RF. You immediately began working for the coming of peace in Ukraine, and therefore in Europe, and this is truly very important. It is important for everyone on Earth, because without peace for Ukraine, no person in the world will be able to look confidently into the future. Each of you knows what Chernobyl is—a nuclear power plant in Ukraine where a powerful explosion occurred in 1986, a release of radiation, the consequences of which were recorded in various parts of the planet. The 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl plant is still closed; it is dangerous. In the forests that fill the closed zone, back then, during the liquidation of the consequences of the explosion, thousands of tons of contaminated materials in the wreckage of machines were buried at the station, simply in the ground. On February 24, Russian armored vehicles drove across this very land, raising radioactive dust into the air. The Chernobyl plant was seized by force, by weapons; imagine, a nuclear power plant where a catastrophe occurred. The containment that closes the destroyed reactor, working with nuclear waste storage. Russia has turned this facility as well into an arena of war. And Russia uses this 30-kilometer territory, this closed zone, to prepare new attacks against our defense forces. After the Russian troops leave the territory of Ukraine, it will take years to investigate what damage they caused to the Chernobyl land, which radioactive material burials they damaged. And how has radioactive dust spread across the planet? Ladies and gentlemen, there are four operational nuclear power plants on our land. This is 15 nuclear blocks, and all of them are under threat. Russian troops have already shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant—by the way, the largest in Europe—with tanks. Hostilities have damaged hundreds of industrial production sites, and many of them are particularly dangerous. Shelling threatens gas and oil pipelines, coal mines. Recently, Russian troops also shelled a chemical production facility in the Sumy region of Ukraine. An ammonia leak occurred there. We are being warned about possible chemical attacks, in particular, using sarin, as happened in Syria. And one of the main themes for discussion among world politicians has been the question of how to react if Russia also uses nuclear weapons. Any certainty of any person in the world, of any country, is completely destroyed. Our military has been heroically defending Ukraine for 28 days now. 28 days of full-scale invasion by the largest state in the world by size. But not the largest in potential, not the largest in influence, and the smallest from a moral point of view. Russia has used more than 1,000 missiles, an untold number of aerial bombs against peaceful Ukrainian cities. Russian troops have destroyed dozens of our cities; some were burned down. In many cities and villages that fell under Russian occupation, people cannot even decently bury their killed relatives, friends, neighbors. Burials have to be made right in the yards of destroyed houses, along the roads, simply wherever possible. Thousands of people have been killed, including 121 children. About 9 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes, their native places, escaping Russian troops. Our northern territories, eastern, southern, are emptying because people are fleeing from this deadly threat. Russia even blocked the sea for us, ordinary trade routes, showing some other potential aggressors in the world how to pressure free peoples by blocking shipping. Ladies and gentlemen, today it is precisely Ukraine, partner states, and our anti-war coalition that can provide a guarantee that global security will not be completely destroyed, that there will be a support for the freedom of peoples, for the free life of people and the preservation of diversity in societies, for the security of borders, for the certainty that we, our children, our grandchildren will still have peace. You see that international institutions did not work, not even the UN and the Security Council. What can they do? They need reforming; they need an injection of honesty to become effective, to truly decide and truly influence, rather than just discuss. Because of Russia's war against Ukraine, the world is destabilized; the world is on the threshold of many new crises, and who now is certain what tomorrow will be like? Turbulence in world markets brings problems for all countries that depend on the import of raw materials. Ecological and food challenges are unprecedented. And most importantly, it is being decided now whether all aggressors on the planet, obvious and potential, will be convinced that for a war they unleash there will be such a powerful punishment that they should not even start a war, that they should not destroy peace. It is absolutely logical and correct that responsible states unite for the protection of peace. I am grateful to your state for its principled position at such a historical moment, for real assistance to Ukraine. You were the first in Asia to start putting truly strong pressure on Russia to restore peace, who supported sanctions against Russia. I call upon you to continue doing this, I call upon you to unite the efforts of Asian states, your partners, to stabilize the situation, so that Russia seeks peace and stops the tsunami of its cruel invasion of our state, of Ukraine. An embargo on trade with Russia is needed; companies must be removed from the Russian market so that money does not go to the Russian army. It is necessary to help our even more

to the state, to our defenders, to our warriors who are stopping the Russian troops. It is already necessary to start thinking about the reconstruction of Ukraine, about the return of life to cities destroyed by Russia and to the territories devastated by it. People must return to where they lived, where they grew up, where they feel that it is their home, their small homeland. I am sure you understand this feeling, this need, the need to return to one's own land. We must develop new security guarantees so that it is possible to act preemptively and strongly every time a threat to peace arises. Whether this can be done on the basis of existing international structures after such a war, definitely not. It is necessary to create new instruments, new guarantees that will work preemptively and strongly against any aggression, which will truly help. Japan's leadership can become indispensable in their development for Ukraine, for the world. I propose this to you so that the world can again feel confidence in what tomorrow will be, that it will be stable and peaceful for us, for future generations. Ladies and gentlemen, people of Japan, together with you we are capable of doing much, even more than we can imagine. I know what a brilliant history of development you have, how you know how to build, how to protect harmony, be guided by principles and value life, protect the environment, the roots of this are in your culture, which Ukrainians truly love. I do not say this just for the sake of it, not out of courtesy, it really is so. Back in 2019, literally six months after I became the President of Ukraine, my wife Olena took part in a project for children with visual impairments. In a project to create audiobooks, she voiced specifically Japanese fairy tales in the Ukrainian language, because they are understandable for us, for children, and this was only a drop in the vast sea of our attention, of Ukrainian attention to your heritage. In values, we are similar, despite the immense distance between our countries. A distance that does not actually exist, because we have the same warmth in our hearts. Thanks to joint efforts, thanks to even greater pressure on Russia, we will come to peace and will be able to rebuild our country, reform international institutions. I am sure that Japan will be with us then just as it is now, in our anti-war coalition, in this decisive time for all of us. Thank you. Arigato. Gozaimasu. Glory to Ukraine. Glory to Japan.