Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Congress of the United States of America last night. As his country enters its eleventh month of war against Russian invaders, President Zelenskyy traveled to America to declare, “Against all odds and doom-and-gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”
Dear Americans!
In all states, cities and communities. All those who value freedom and justice. Who cherish it as strongly, as we, Ukrainians, in all our cities, in each and every family. I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart!
Madam Vice President, I thank you for your efforts in helping Ukraine! Madam Speaker, you bravely visited Ukraine during the full-fledged war, thank you very much! It is a great honor, a great privilege to be here!
Dear members of the Congress – representatives of both parties – who also visited Kyiv! Esteemed Congressmen and Senators – from both parties – who will visit Ukraine, I’m sure, in the future! Dear representatives of diaspora – present in this chamber and spread across the country! Dear journalists!
It’s a great honor for me to be at the U.S. Congress and speak to you and all Americans!
Against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.
And it gives me good reason to share with you our first joint victory – we defeated Russia in the battle for minds of the world. We have no fear. Nor should anyone in the world have it.
Ukrainians gained this victory – and it gives us courage, which inspires the entire world.
Americans gained this victory – and that’s why you have succeeded in uniting the global community to protect freedom and international law.
Europeans gained this victory – and that’s why Europe is now stronger and more independent than ever.
The Russian tyranny has lost control over us and it will never influence our minds again.
Yet, we have to do whatever it takes to ensure that countries of the Global South also gain such victory.
I know one more thing – the Russians will stand a chance to be free only when they defeat the Kremlin in their minds.
Yet, the battle continues! And we have to defeat the Kremlin on the battlefield.
This battle is not only for the territory – for this or another part of Europe. This battle is not only for life, freedom and security of Ukrainians or any other nation, which Russia attempts to conquer. This struggle will define – in what world our children and grandchildren will live and then – their children and grandchildren. It will define whether it will be a democracy – for Ukrainians and for Americans – for all.
This battle cannot be frozen or postponed. It cannot be ignored hoping that the ocean or something else will provide a protection.
From the United States to China, from Europe to Latin America, and from Africa to Australia – the world is too interconnected and interdependent to allow someone to stay aside – and at the same time – to feel safe when such a battle continues.
Our two nations are Allies in this battle.
And next year will be a turning point. The point, when Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom. The freedom of people, who stand for their values.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Americans!
Yesterday – before coming here to Washington DC – I was at the frontline, in our Bakhmut. In our stronghold in the East of Ukraine – in the Donbas.
The Russian military and mercenaries have been attacking Bakhmut non-stop since May. They have been attacking it day and night. But Bakhmut stands.
Last year seventy thousand people lived there in Bakhmut and now only few civilians stay.
Every inch of that land is soaked in blood. Roaring guns sound every hour. Trenches in the Donbas change hands several times a day in fierce combat and even hand fighting. But the Ukrainian Donbas stands.
Russians use everything they have against Bakhmut and our other beautiful cities.
The occupiers have a significant advantage in artillery. They have an advantage in ammunition. They have much more missiles and planes than we ever had.
But our Defense Forces stand. And we all are proud of them.
The Russian tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent thugs to the frontlines. They sent convicts to the war…
They threw everything against us – similar to the other tyranny, which in the Battle of the Bulge threw everything it had against the free world. Just like the brave American soldiers, which held their lines and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to Putin’s forces this Christmas. Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender!
So, here is the frontline – the tyranny, which has no lack of cruelty – against the lives of free people.
And your support is crucial – not just to stand in such fights, but to get to the turning point. To win on the battlefield.
We have artillery. Yes. Thank you. Is it enough? Honestly, not really. To ensure Bakhmut is not just a stronghold that holds back the Russian army – but for the Russian army to completely pull out – more cannons and shells are needed.
If so, just like the battle of Saratoga, the fight for Bakhmut will change the trajectory of our war for independence and freedom.
If your «Patriots» stop the Russian terror against our cities, it will let Ukrainian patriots work to the full to defend our freedom.
When Russia cannot reach our cities by its artillery, it tries to destroy them with missile attacks. More than that, Russia found an ally in its genocidal policy – Iran.
Iranian deadly drones, sent to Russia in hundreds, became a threat to our critical infrastructure. That is how one terrorist has found the other. It is just a matter of time – when they will strike against your other allies, if we do not stop them now. We must do it!
I believe there should be no taboos between us in our alliance. Ukraine never asked the American soldiers to fight on our land instead of us. I assure you that Ukrainian soldiers can perfectly operate American tanks and planes themselves.
Financial assistance is also critically important. And I would like to thank you for both, financial packages you have already provided us with, and the ones you may be willing to decide on. Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.
Russia could stop its aggression if it wanted to, but you can speed up our victory. I know it.
And it will prove to any potential aggressor that no one can succeed in breaking national borders, committing atrocities and reigning over people against their will.
It would be naive to wait for steps towards peace from Russia – which enjoys being a terrorist state. Russians are still poisoned by the Kremlin.
The restoration of international legal order is our joint task. We need peace. Ukraine has already offered proposals, which I just discussed with President Biden – our Peace Formula.
Ten points, which should and must be implemented for our joint security – guaranteed for decades ahead.
And the Summit, which can be held.
I am glad to stress that President Biden supported our peace initiative today. Each of you, ladies and gentlemen, can assist in its implementation – to ensure that America’s leadership remains solid, bicameral and bipartisan.
You can strengthen sanctions to make Russia feel how ruinous its aggression truly is.
It is in your power to help us bring to justice everyone, who started this unprovoked and criminal war. Let’s do it!
Let the terrorist state be held responsible for its terror and aggression, and compensate all losses done by this war.
Let the world see that the United States is here!
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Americans!
In two days, we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe, candlelit. Not because it is more romantic. But because there will be no electricity. Millions won’t have neither heating nor running water. All of this will be the result of Russian missile and drone attacks on our energy infrastructure. But we do not complain.
We do not judge and compare whose life is easier.
Your well-being is the product of your national security – the result of your struggle for independence and your many victories.
We, Ukrainians, will also go through our war of independence and freedom with dignity and success.
We’ll celebrate Christmas – and even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out. If Russian missiles attack us – we’ll do our best to protect ourselves. If they attack us with Iranian drones and our people will have to go to bomb shelters on Christmas eve – Ukrainians will still sit down at a holiday table and cheer up each other. And we don’t have to know everyone’s wish as we know that all of us, millions of Ukrainians, wish the same – victory. Only victory.
We already built strong Ukraine – with strong people, strong army, and strong institutions. Together with you!
We develop strong security guarantees for our country and for entire Europe and the world. Together with you!
And also – together with you! – we’ll put in place everyone, who will defy freedom.
This will be the basis to protect democracy in Europe and the world over.
Now, on this special Christmas time, I want to thank you. All of you. I thank every American family, which cherishes the warmth of its home and wishes the same warmth to other people.
I thank President Biden and both parties at the Senate and the House – for your invaluable assistance.
I thank your cities and your citizens, who supported Ukraine this year, who hosted our people, who waved our national flags, who acted to help us.
Thank you all! From everyone, who is now at the frontline. From everyone, who is awaiting victory.
Standing here today, I recall the words of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which are so good for this moment: “The American People in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory”.
The Ukrainian People will win, too. Absolutely. I know that everything depends on us. On Ukrainian Armed Forces! Yet, so much depends on the world! So much in the world depends on you!
When I was in Bakhmut yesterday, our heroes gave me the flag. The battle flag. The flag of those who defend Ukraine, Europe and the world at the cost of their lives. They asked me to bring this flag to the US Congress – to members of the House of Representatives and Senators, whose decisions can save millions of people.
So, let these decisions be taken!
Let this flag stay with you, ladies and gentlemen!
This flag is a symbol of our victory in this war!
We stand, we fight and we will win. Because we are united. Ukraine, America and the entire free world.
May God protect our brave troops and citizens! May God forever bless the United States of America!
Merry Christmas and a happy victorious new year!
Слава Україні!
[Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, address to joint meeting of the United States Congress, Washington, DC, 2022.12.21]
Related History: President Zelenskyy’s speech to Congress comes 81 years after Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed Congress to rally Americans in World War 2.
President Zelenskyy spoke earlier in the day at the White House in a joint press conference with United States President Joe Biden.
Stopping the Keystone XL pipeline gave Vlad the Impaler the petrodollars he needed to invade Ukraine. Now he is opening the Arctic to shipping as ash and soot from wildfires in the Siberian taiga are accelerating the loss of Arctic sea ice driving more frequent and deeper polar vortexes. Iran and Israel are rogue states with dictators as rulers.
It’s nice that the US weapons manufacturers are making a lot of money here. I would prefer to see the Biden admin publicly make an effort to stop this nonsense instead of pumping weapons. Hopefully most Ukrainians were smart enough to get out early knowing we were just going to keep this going as long as possible.
Just say it: radical christianic terrorism.
The United States is the arms dealer to the world and averse to gun control at home as it assassinates children, women and men throughout the Muslim world. Hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and beyond.
The United States gets much of its nitrogen fertilizer from Morocco, Belarus and the Persian Gulf but a Trump era tariff and Hurricane Ida in the Gulf of Mexico slowed the movement of product to markets up and down the Mississippi River. Nitrogen fertilizer is normally applied to subsidized corn then ends right back in the Gulf of Mexico where it kills whole ecosystems.
I notice that the uber-right conservative pundits & politicians are having a melt-down over Zelensky speaking to Congress last night. So, why do they hate Zelensky and Ukraine’s fight against Russia?
Here they finally are seeing, live and in person, a country and a people willing to fight to their literal death and destruction for their freedom and their country – and they’re rooting for the invader. They’re rooting for Scut Farkus v. Ralphie.
That tells me all I need to know about what they’d do if Russia – or anyone else – were to invade the United States. And it sure as hell wouldn’t be fight.
If Russia conquers Ukraine it will not stop there. Romania and the eastern third of Poland would be next. Are you naysayers OK with that?
Thanks for printing Zelenskyy’s address. I wasn’t able to watch it as it happened so your printing of it is much appreciated. This morning KELO interrupted coverage on CBS to run a repeat weather report they’d just given 5 minutes earlier. I believe Zelenskyy would be welcomed into the fold of our founding fathers based on his words and his ability to get to the heart of why we must help them and why they must win.
Put Putinannie down already. Why can’t we learn our lesson when we see evil psycho killers start creeping on the come-up? We already know what they will do to millions of vulnerable people and the security of the planet to achieve total world domination. Stop that fool in his tracks and do it so the world never has to look over it’s shoulder or worry about that sicko ever again. Tell Putin to basically, “Go to sleep, ho.”
US made parts are showing up in downed Iranian drones used by P:utin.
Americans are a lazy, callous breed who will rarely give a crap about anything – until it happens to them. Then they become all indigent; often well after the fact.
Putler got away with his Imperial Russian behavior with 6 invasions & occupations . . . until now. It is like watching the 1930 Japanese and / or Germans set out on their empires with out saying, “boo”. An ounce of prevention then would have spared 50 million lives later. Fast forward to today.
I guess some of you are on the same side as Paul Gosar. (R-AZ)
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1605900883144867841
Joe-No, sir. Not here.
Ukraine is making the historic stand against Totalitarian conquest in our time. The courage and resolve of the Ukrainian people is inspiring, and reminds us of how this country was founded, in blood, against a monarchy of totalitarians. Putin has terrorized his own people, sending thousands to the Gulag, poisoning and assassinating any rivals, blustering and threatening, now invading his neighbors. Russia itself, is an empty shell, old, sick, alcoholic, inept, but brutal in its application of force. Putin is ill, (Parkinson’s and Cancer are speculated), but determined to keep control of the oil fields and ports on the Black Sea. When he passes, Russia will fall into chaos. Zelinski is the man of the moment, and the Ukrainian people should be our heroes.
larry kurtz
“The United States gets much of its nitrogen fertilizer from Morocco, Belarus and the Persian Gulf…”
Really?
” The global production of nitrogen fertilizer amounted to some 117.5 million metric tons in 2018. China was by far the country with the largest production, with an output of 28.9 million metric tons of nutrient. It was followed by the United States and India, with 13.6 and 13.3 million metric tons produced, respectively.”
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1252656/nitrogen-fertilizer-production-by-country/#:~:text=The%20global%20production%20of%20nitrogen%20fertilizer%20amounted%20to,13.6%20and%2013.3%20million%20metric%20tons%20produced%2C%20respectively
Morocco and Belarus are major exporters of postassic, not nitrogen, fertilizer.
https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/potassic-fertilizers/reporter/blr
well done Cory, echoing WillyNilly
Belarus brokers fertilizer exports and Morocco is a merciless occupier but aiding Ukraine.
https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2022/04/potential-disruptions-in-nitrogen-fertilizer-trade.html
Belarus manufactures farm equipment that operators don’t need an engineering degree or John Deere software to repair. Their getting sideways with the United Snakes and Canada is a bad choice.
Don’t forget, the democracy-loving citizens of Myanmar are getting their a55es kicked. No internet, no weapons, no help from the “democracy-guardians” of the west. Democracy is always under attack, act accordingly.
Anne Applebaum reminds us what is at stake.
“Had the Russian plan been carried out as it was written, Kyiv would have been conquered in just a few days. Zelensky, his wife, and his children would have been murdered by one of the hit squads that roamed the capital city. The Ukrainian state would have been taken over by the collaborators who had already chosen their Kyiv apartments. Then, city by city, region by region, the Russian army would have fought the remnants of the Ukrainian army until it finally conquered the entire country. Originally, the Russian general staff imagined that this victory would require six weeks.
Had all of that happened as planned, Ukraine would now be pockmarked with the concentration camps, torture chambers, and makeshift prisons that have been discovered in Bucha, Izyum, Kherson, and all the other territories temporarily occupied by Russia and liberated by the Ukrainian army. A generation of Ukrainian writers, artists, politicians, journalists, and civic leaders would already be buried in mass graves. Ukrainian books would have been removed from schools and libraries. The Ukrainian language would have been suppressed in all public spaces. Hundreds of thousands more Ukrainian children would have been kidnapped and transported to Russia or trafficked farther around the world.
Russian soldiers, strengthened by their stunning victory, would already be on the borders of Poland, setting up new command posts, digging new trenches. NATO would be in chaos; the entire alliance would be forced to spend billions to prepare for the inevitable invasion of Warsaw, Vilnius, or Berlin. Millions of Ukrainian refugees would be living in camps all across Europe, with no prospect of ever returning home; the tide of sympathy that originally greeted them would have ebbed long ago; the money would be running out, the backlash under way. The Moldovan economy would have collapsed entirely; a pro-Russian government in Moldova would perhaps already be planning to incorporate that country into the emerging Russian-Belarusian-Ukrainian federation that one Russian propagandist hailed, too early, on February 26.
This disaster would not have been confined to Europe. On the other side of the world, Chinese plans to invade Taiwan would be well under way, because Beijing would assume that an America unwilling to defend a European ally, and now totally bogged down in a long-term battle against an emboldened Russia, would never go out of its way to help an island in the Pacific. The Iranian mullahs, equally cheered by Russia’s success and Ukraine’s defeat, would have boldly announced that they had finally acquired nuclear weapons. From Venezuela to Zimbabwe to Myanmar, dictatorships around the world would have tightened their regimes and stepped up the persecution of their opponents, now certain that the old rules—the conventions on human rights and genocide, the laws of war, the taboo against changing borders by force—no longer applied. From Washington to London, from Tokyo to Canberra, the democratic world would be grimly facing up to its obsolescence.”
“But none of this happened. Because Zelensky stayed in Kyiv, declaring that he needed “ammunition, not a ride””. . . .
https://archive.ph/tOGgK
Taking the long view, over 800 years . . .
“How to make Russia really hurt, so that it calms down, takes care of its internal problems and does not threaten another repetition . . . The problem is a lack of punishment, which means impunity. So those who warn us are right: they will fire at us from around the corner for a very long time.”
Who are the Russians, who are the people cheered by the MAGA crowd of Gosar, Boebert, Gaetz, MTG, and trump apologists like Noem? They are the fourth generation of terrorists.
“Who were its leaders, the Bolsheviks? Criminals, bank robbers, provocateurs, and terrorists. They themselves sprouted from the regicides of the Narodnaya Volya, whose bullets and explosives became an integral part of the life of the empire from the 1870s, who were exalted by the vanquishers of tsarism to a cult status, whose terror which depended upon the taking of hostages became the state policy of the communists since 1918 – a policy which is still in effect to this day.”
https://english.nv.ua/opinion/unpunished-evil-will-return-why-defeat-in-the-war-will-not-curb-russia-opinion-50289292.html
John, you are absolutely right on the money about what would have happened in Ukraine – and had Trump been reelected, this is exactly what would have happened, because the one person Trump never betrayed or ignored was Vladimir Putin.
Here is another speech to consider in these difficult times.
https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-university-19630610