Zelensky, to the US Congress: “We need you. Remember Pearl Harbour, when you were attacked. Remember 9/11”
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, intervenes this Wednesday by videoconference before the two Houses of the United States Congress. This is the second time he has addressed lawmakers since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. The president of the House of Representatives, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, has been the one who has given way to Zelenski: “Good morning, Mr. President”, she said, while the rest of the legislators broke into applause with the image of Zelenski on a screen huge surrounded by American flags. “Americans, friends, I am proud to greet you from Ukraine, from our capital, kyiv, which is under siege by Russian missiles and troops every day, but we do not give up, it does not give up, and we have not even thought about it for a second, just like many other cities and communities in our beautiful country, which is in the worst situation since World War II. I have the honor to greet you on behalf of the Ukrainian people, who for eight years have been enduring Russian aggression”, begins Zelenksi, referring to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 after a referendum not recognized by the international community.
He adds: “Right now, the fate of our country is being decided, the fate of our country, whether the Ukrainians are going to be free, whether we are going to be able to preserve our democracy. Russia has attacked, not only us, not only our land, not only our cities, it has been a brutal attack on our values, on basic human values, through tanks and planes against our land, against our right to live free in our country and choosing our own future.”
Zelensky speaks before Congress the same week in which the president of the North American country, Joe Biden, has signed a law that contemplates 13,600 million dollars ((almost 12,300 million euros) in aid for Ukraine and the countries on the eastern flank of the NATO “We want to be happy, we want to fulfill our national dreams, the same dreams that you have in the United States, just like any citizen of the United States. I have been able to visit the memorial in Rushmore, I have been able to pay tribute to those who gave their life for America, for democracy, for freedom, the fundamental values of all people who live honestly, who respect the law. Well, we in Ukraine want the same thing that the rest of the world wants. All this is something normal in our life, and it is what we want. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, Americans, throughout history you have supported Ukraine and now you understand us, and now we need you, I ask you to remember l The Pearl Harbor attacks, when your country was attacked. I only ask you to remember September 11, 2001, a terrible day, when evil tried to destroy your cities, when it tried to attack your free country, a day in which thousands of people died just when nobody expected it and you could not stop that evil. Our country is experiencing the same, that same evil every day, every moment, every night, we have been suffering for three weeks now, “adds Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president has once again called for a no-fly zone to be created in Ukraine so that Russian planes cannot bomb the country’s cities: “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a place of death for thousands of people. The Russian Army has already fired more than a thousand missiles at Ukraine, thousands of bombs have tried to destroy us. It is a terror that Europe has not seen for more than 80 years. And what we ask is help to end this terror. Is it asking so much that they close the Ukrainian sky to save people’s lives? Is it too much to ask? Russia, with the sky closed, will not be able to continue terrorizing our cities.” Zelensky has paraphrased Martin Luther King: “I have a dream, that is what I can tell you, I have a dream, and I also have a need, which is to protect our skies. And I need your help, your determination, and I’m sure you know what it feels like when I tell you ‘I have a dream’.
Zelensky, to the US Congress: “We need you. Remember Pearl Harbour, when you were attacked. Remember 9/11”
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, intervenes this Wednesday by videoconference before the two Houses of the United States Congress. This is the second time he has addressed lawmakers since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. The president of the House of Representatives, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, has been the one who has given way to Zelenski: “Good morning, Mr. President”, she said, while the rest of the legislators broke into applause with the image of Zelenski on a screen huge surrounded by American flags. “Americans, friends, I am proud to greet you from Ukraine, from our capital, kyiv, which is under siege by Russian missiles and troops every day, but we do not give up, it does not give up, and we have not even thought about it for a second, just like many other cities and communities in our beautiful country, which is in the worst situation since World War II. I have the honor to greet you on behalf of the Ukrainian people, who for eight years have been enduring Russian aggression”, begins Zelenksi, referring to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 after a referendum not recognized by the international community.
He adds: “Right now, the fate of our country is being decided, the fate of our country, whether the Ukrainians are going to be free, whether we are going to be able to preserve our democracy. Russia has attacked, not only us, not only our land, not only our cities, it has been a brutal attack on our values, on basic human values, through tanks and planes against our land, against our right to live free in our country and choosing our own future.”
Zelensky speaks before Congress the same week in which the president of the North American country, Joe Biden, has signed a law that contemplates 13,600 million dollars ((almost 12,300 million euros) in aid for Ukraine and the countries on the eastern flank of the NATO “We want to be happy, we want to fulfill our national dreams, the same dreams that you have in the United States, just like any citizen of the United States. I have been able to visit the memorial in Rushmore, I have been able to pay tribute to those who gave their life for America, for democracy, for freedom, the fundamental values of all people who live honestly, who respect the law. Well, we in Ukraine want the same thing that the rest of the world wants. All this is something normal in our life, and it is what we want. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, Americans, throughout history you have supported Ukraine and now you understand us, and now we need you, I ask you to remember l The Pearl Harbor attacks, when your country was attacked. I only ask you to remember September 11, 2001, a terrible day, when evil tried to destroy your cities, when it tried to attack your free country, a day in which thousands of people died just when nobody expected it and you could not stop that evil. Our country is experiencing the same, that same evil every day, every moment, every night, we have been suffering for three weeks now, “adds Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president has once again called for a no-fly zone to be created in Ukraine so that Russian planes cannot bomb the country’s cities: “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a place of death for thousands of people. The Russian Army has already fired more than a thousand missiles at Ukraine, thousands of bombs have tried to destroy us. It is a terror that Europe has not seen for more than 80 years. And what we ask is help to end this terror. Is it asking so much that they close the Ukrainian sky to save people’s lives? Is it too much to ask? Russia, with the sky closed, will not be able to continue terrorizing our cities.” Zelensky has paraphrased Martin Luther King: “I have a dream, that is what I can tell you, I have a dream, and I also have a need, which is to protect our skies. And I need your help, your determination, and I’m sure you know what it feels like when I tell you ‘I have a dream’.