Zelenskiy addresses parliament as Ukraine marks 1,000 days of Russian invasion
KYIV (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday in a speech marking 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Here are key quotes from the speech, centered around what Zelenskiy described as a “resilience” plan for Ukraine:
UNITY AND RESILIENCE
“In the decisive moments – and they will come next year – we should not allow anyone in the world to doubt Ukraine’s resilience.”
“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail. Whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians… and Europeans. And everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator.”
“Unity is the first point of our internal Resilience Plan.”
NATO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION
“We have achieved the highest level of closeness with the European Union and NATO since our independence.”
“All necessary architecture for the negotiation process with the European Union has been formed. We have to move dynamically during the talks.”
“Ukraine’s right to NATO membership is vitally important for all of us.”
“We have already concluded 27 bilateral security agreements with partners. Almost all are members of NATO, and they support Ukraine’s accession to NATO.”
SOVEREIGNTY AND TALKS
“We will not trade our sovereignty, security or the future of Ukraine.”
“We will not give up Ukraine’s rights to its territory.
“And we will not abandon a rational approach to guarantee the rights of our state. We should act wisely. Maybe Ukraine will have to outlive someone in Moscow in order to achieve all its goals… To restore the full integrity of Ukraine.”
ELECTIONS
“We all know that Ukraine’s Constitution and the law do not allow elections to be held in wartime. And no one in the world has demanded or demands this from Ukraine.
“Ukraine first needs a just peace. And then Ukrainians will hold fair elections.”
FRONTLINE AND WEAPONS PRODUCTION
“There is no need for any speculation – our state is not preparing to lower the mobilization age.”
“We envisage quite specific measures to stabilize the front, conduct the necessary operations by Ukraine’s defence and security forces both in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and in Russia against military facilities, and also we envisage measures for significantly greater technological efficiency of the Ukrainian Defence Forces.”
“Now in some front areas – and these are the hottest places – drones account for 90% of the destruction of the occupier’s equipment. FPV and other drones in fact compensate for the shortage of artillery in our army.”
“Next year Ukraine will produce at least 30,000 long-range drones. The task is to make at least three thousand cruise missiles and drone-missiles.”
“Ukrainian weapons are one of the foundations of Ukrainian independence.”
“We need to be ahead of Russia in technology.”
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Gareth Jones)