Quote of the day 16th October 2026

"Putin says he wants the Donbas, but why, at the start of the full-scale invasion, was he trying to occupy Kyiv?

Is that the east of our country? Is that the Donbas? No, that’s the capital. Without a capital, there is no state.

Putin wants to destroy Ukraine. For us, the question is not about withdrawing from the Donbas.

The real question is the survival of our state. We stand and fight, because what is the alternative? To be destroyed.

Simply put, not everyone feels this because Ukraine is still standing. We have stabilized the battlefield.

We are grateful to our partners in Europe, America, and other countries, Japan is helping, Canada is helping, Australia, New Zealand, whoever can.

Ukraine stands against such a powerful enemy as Russia. We stand, otherwise we will be destroyed.


It’s always difficult, you know, in communications with partners, to find the right words, the warnings that they will truly understand.

Putin wants to destroy us. He doesn't respect us, our sovereignty, or our territorial integrity.

He genuinely believes that we are not a country, not a nation.


So do you really trust that he only needs the eastern part of our country? Of course that will never be enough for him.

And what will happen if we fall? How many people, I don’t know, maybe twenty million Ukrainians, will come to Europe?

Because Putin will destroy our homes and force us out. For me, this is absolutely clear.


That’s why we are standing strong, defending our country. Yes, with pain, with huge losses.

That’s why we are asking: stop the killing. And as I have heard so many times from POTUS, 'they have to stop the killing.'


Russia is killing us on our own territory. They came onto our land and keep pushing further.

They do not want to stop. They do not even want to freeze the war, as you can see.

So, do you think what Putin really wants is just the eastern part of our country? No. It will never be enough for a person like him."


President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten years ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by th...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more