Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky appealed to the desire for peace and security in Mexico as a commonality between the two countries. In the first speech the Ukrainian leader has delivered to Mexican leaders since Russia began invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Zelenskyy explained that the two countries, despite speaking different languages, have bonded over the pain of becoming one lose, could understand life. “We have something that allows us to understand each other: our hearts. They hurt just as much when we see innocent lives taken,” he told a group of Mexican lawmakers via conference call. In the 13-minute speech, the Ukrainian leader asked for help from Mexican lawmakers in organizing a special summit in Latin America to allow countries in the region to appeal for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Ukraine has already proposed to Latin America to organize a special summit and demonstrate their unity and global principles. I think with Mexico’s help it would go much faster,” he explained.
Speaking to an audience made up mostly of opposition MPs who have been applauding vigorously since the Ukrainian leader appeared on the two screens set up in the Green Hall, Zelenskyy stressed that peace is the “main wish of thousands and billions of prayers around the world.” sei Welt”, which is heard by tens of millions in Ukraine. “Ladies and gentlemen, Mexicans, aren’t we united by the dream of safety and tranquility on all the streets of our cities? Could it be that we don’t equally condemn those who kill civilians and burn houses? We are equal in not accepting evil,” he said in a message.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Mexican government has had an ambivalent stance on the conflict. On the one hand, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has claimed that he is following the principles of Mexican foreign policy: non-interference and self-determination of the peoples, i.e. neutrality. However, he has criticized actions by other countries trying to help Ukraine against Russia, as in January this year when he questioned the German government about sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The Mexican President also sharply criticized Zelenski’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was voted on by MPs last year. On the other hand, the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations (UN), headed by former rector of the National University of Mexico (Mexico’s largest and most important public university), Juan Ramón de la Fuente, has voted in favor of at least three resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, to demand that Vladimir Putin’s government pay reparations for the damage caused by the war in Ukraine and to withdraw Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.
The event took place on April 20, although the suggestion that the President of Ukraine could address the Mexican Congress had been on the table since October last year, when Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk and Speaker of the Chamber of Mexico’s MP, PAN member Santiago Creel, conducted a video call. However, there was opposition within lawmakers from the ruling party and its allied parties that this speech should be delivered in Congress. The speech was broadcast in an adjoining room in the House of Commons instead of the boardroom where all MPs hold the most important sessions and votes, due to the opposition from the bench of the Labor Party, a group close to Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador .
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