Secretary General, all Presidents, I welcome you from Kyiv, our capital, which, like our entire nation, has been fighting for a month.
Yes, it is true, we are not a member of the Confederation, not part of the most powerful defense alliance in the world, not one of those Article 5 nations entitled to defense. But we feel we are in a gray area between the West and Russia, and yet we all defend our common values. And we are now defending those values for a month – a month of heroic resistance, a month of darkest suffering and the destruction of global security without punishment. The world saw it.
Russia has amassed enormous military resources, men, air bombs, missiles. You have invested a lot of money in death while the world has invested in life. But Ukraine is holding on, at the cost of human lives, destroyed cities and tens of millions of displaced people – many of whom are on their territory, in NATO countries. I am grateful for their support. And unfortunately, people continue to leave their homes and seek refuge from the terror that the occupiers brought with them.
From the first hours of the invasion we had brutal rocket attacks. Russia used almost a thousand, over a thousand different missiles, hundreds of airstrikes. And I came to you on February 24 with a very logical request: Please help us in any way with a no-fly zone. Connect our skies in any format. Protect our citizens from Russian bombs and missiles. We haven’t heard a clear answer. Ukraine does not have a strong missile defense system. Russia has stronger aviation and therefore has the advantage of using weapons of mass destruction. And you see the aftermath, how many people have been killed, how many peaceful cities have been destroyed.
Ukraine held out under unequal conditions. And I repeated the same thing. To save people and cities in Ukraine, we need full military support. Just as Russia uses its entire arsenal against us indefinitely, destroying everything that lives, from civilian infrastructure to universities to churches, bridges and hospitals to food storage facilities. We’re asking for planes so we don’t lose so many people. They have these planes, but we haven’t received a single one. We demand tanks so we can unlock our cities that are now dying – Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol – where Russia is holding thousands of people hostage and creating an artificial famine. There is no water there, no food.
You have at least 20,000 tanks. Ukraine demands 1 percent, 1 percent of all your tanks. Please give them to us or sell them to us. But we haven’t heard a clear answer yet. That’s the worst thing about war. We are not supposed to get a clear answer to requests for help from the West. Ukraine never wanted this war and has not wanted to wage it for years. We just want to save our people, survive, just survive. Like every nation we have the right, I believe, the right to life. The right to that 1 percent. And I don’t blame NATO. I want to be clear It’s not your fault. It’s not your rockets, it’s not your bombs that are destroying us.
Today, since morning, we have seen phosphorus bombs, Russian phosphorus bombs, again killing adults and children. I want you to know that by providing us all with all the weapons we need, the Alliance can yet stop Ukrainian deaths from Russian strikes and occupation. Yes, we are not members of the alliance and I make no demands. But Ukrainians never thought that the alliance and the countries of the alliance are different things. That you can be a force in matters of life and death, separately and not together, that NATO can be afraid of Russia’s actions.
I am sure you now understand that Russia will not stop at Ukraine. It will not. It will continue to go against the eastern NATO members – definitely the Baltic States and Poland. Will NATO stop worrying about how Russia will react? Are you sure Article 5 can work? Because the Budapest Memorandum didn’t work for us. The Budapest Memorandum has not contributed to peace in Ukraine. And I will still be honest with you today. Budapest does not work for peace in Ukraine.
Yes, we have support from some members of the alliance. And I’m very grateful. All Ukrainians are sincerely grateful for this – all of you who give us what you have to support us. But what about the alliance? The issue of Article 5 is fundamental. I want you to know that we’re thinking about it. And I sincerely hope that we are wrong in our assessment and in our doubts. And I hope that you are indeed a powerful alliance. Because if we’re wrong, then the world is safe. But if we are not wrong, at least by 1 percent, I would like you – I ask you to review your assessment and your approach and take care of security in Europe and in the world.
You can give us 1 percent of all your planes, 1 percent of all your tanks, 1 percent. We can’t buy it. These supplies depend on NATO’s political decisions. Can we fight this war without multiple missile launch systems, anti-war ship systems, air defense systems? So when we finally have it, it gives us and you 100% security. And we only need one. The only thing I ask of you after this one month war is to ask you on behalf of our military, after this month long war with Russia, at war with Russia, please don’t tell us that our army is not capable of NATO -Standards.
We have shown what our standards are worth, how much we can contribute to the overall security of Europe and the world, how much we can do to protect ourselves – to protect everyone from attack, to protect our common values. But NATO has yet to show what NATO can do to save lives and show that it is indeed the most powerful defensive alliance in the world. The world is waiting. Ukraine is waiting for real action, real guarantees of security from those whose word can be trusted and whose actions can really keep the peace.
Our proposals are on the table, our requirements are on the table. We need peace now. The answer is yours. I am grateful to those who have helped us. honor of Ukraine. Thanks.