Ukraine is already defeating Russia thanks to its will, technology, resilience, and the ability of society to preserve its humanity even amid a full-scale war. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this on August 24 during a video address on the occasion of Independence Day, UNN reports.
According to the head of state, despite years of war, Ukrainians have not lost the ability to empathize, support one another, and help those in need.
"We are already defeating Russia with all of this. With will, technology, resilience, and dignity. With those pure feelings that live within us. Despite the war, we have preserved tenderness, although we could have become feral. We have preserved the habit of helping first, without asking whether it is your problem. We have preserved the human being within ourselves," Zelenskyy said.
The President cited a number of examples of Ukrainians’ mutual support and resilience – from soldiers returning from captivity and helping wounded comrades to rebuilding communities after Russian attacks.
"When an entire courtyard welcomes someone home from captivity, when an elderly couple takes photos among the sakura trees, and an Odesa minibus driver sings to passengers to cheer them up after a night of strikes, when an entire village restores a stork’s nest, when fellow soldiers carry a comrade with a prosthesis over the final meters to Hoverla because that is what it means – not abandoning your own, when a son who has only just learned to walk embraces his wounded warrior father. All these and hundreds more scenes from our lives are living proof," the head of state said.
Zelenskyy emphasized that the war had failed to make Ukrainian society indifferent or cruel.
We have not grown hard-hearted as a nation. As a nation, we fight, laugh, and cry. We love as a nation. And that makes us a hundred times stronger than Russia and a hundred times stronger than all their tanks in parades
Zelenskyy separately mentioned Ukrainian athlete Taisiia Onafriichuk and her victory at the world level. According to the President, achievements like this demonstrate Ukrainians’ ability to win even under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
"She was five the last time Ukraine won world gold. Thirteen years later, it happened again. Despite all their attacks, all their destruction, and all their evil, we find this ability within ourselves. The ability to win and do the impossible," Zelenskyy emphasized.
According to him, during a major war there are no "small deeds," since every achievement by Ukrainians can influence the morale and resilience of society as a whole.
In a major war, there are no small deeds. And each such achievement by our people can actually set off thousands of chain reactions throughout the country
We remind you
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy named what had destroyed the Kremlin leader’s plans for Ukraine.