Volodymyr Zelensky Quotes

Because freedom is not about having unshackled hands. Freedom is about having unshackled minds.

Ukraine did not seek greatness. But Ukraine has become great.

But this is not a book about how we are unable to change the past. It is a book about how we can build the future.

What will bring the end of the war? We used to say 'peace'. Now we say 'victory'.

Today, children and grandchildren tell their grandparents about war, and not the other way around.

Today, people often say that if there is a Third World War, it will be the last. I hope this statement is a recognition of the dangers our planet faces, rather than a prediction of our future.

I would be the happiesr person in the world if the book you are holding in your hands had never been pubkished

I would be the happiesr person in the world if the book you are holding in your hands had never been published

Because for us, the most terrible steel is not within missiles, aircraft, and tanks - but in shackles. We would rather live in trenches than live in chains.

I would prefer that when people heard the surname Zelensky, they replied, 'Who?

Open doors are good. But today, above all, we need open answers.

I write these words not as an attempt to grab your attention, nor in a phony stab at glory. The reason I need your attention is far too painful, the price of any 'glory' far too high. It is the war that has been unleashed against Ukraine. It is the thousands of lives taken by Russia.

Within days, Trump admitted that on July 25 he had called the new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to enlist his help against former vice president Joe Biden, who was beating Trump in most polls going into the 2020 election season. Zelensky was desperate for the money Congress had approved to help his country fight Russian-backed separatists in the regions Russia had occupied after the 2014 invasion, but Trump indicated he would release the money only after Zelensky announced an investigation into the actions of Biden’s son Hunter during his time on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Zelensky acabou por enfrentar um desafio difícil: liderar o povo ucraniano durante a guerra. Com lágrimas de desespero, com raiva e ódio aos invasores. Com fé na vitória e luto pelos mortos. Não, não foi com isso que sonhava enquanto recebia as insígnias de presidente. Mas foi este desafio que nos permitiu ver o verdadeiro Zelensky. Sem maquilhagem.

His aim, as he saw it, was to keep them engaged, to pry open their eyes and point them toward the picture of the war he wanted them to see. My work was useful to him as a means to that end. He took a pause and cleared his throat, realizing he may have crossed a line in telling me how to do my job. Then he continued to do exactly that. "Forgive me for saying this, but I think the aim of journalism, of the media, is to keep people from getting sick of this," he said, referring to the story of the war. "When they do get sick of it, that brings about fatigue, and fatigue causes a loss of interest. For our country, that leads to the loss of support.

Is Volodymyr Zelensky a puppet of the west?

Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be losing the support of the Ukrainians as they are watching their people being displaced, their country being destroyed and their men being killed instead of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians.

Principles are the first thing dictators attack. Various “Putins” around the world are undermining principles in their societies through propaganda and repression so that people cannot stand up for what they believe in. And then, when the dictatorship gains strength and resources, it tries to export its lack of principles, creating gray zones devoid of values. Europe has had to face this many times. Now we are experiencing another defining moment. Russia is trying to convince nations that it is easy to compromise principles—that they can ignore international law and turn a blind eye to injustice if it will supposedly bring stability. This is Moscow's main message - Putin invites everyone to forget about their principles, to show no resolve, to give up Ukrainian land and people, and then, he says, Russian bombing will stop. But throughout history, every time such agreements have been made, the threat has returned even stronger. Today, we have a chance to win in Eastern Europe so that we don't have to fight on the northern or other eastern fronts—in the Baltic states and Poland, or in the south—in the Balkans, where it is easy to ignite a conflict, or in African countries, whose problems are much closer to European societies than it may seem. We have to stand up for international law and the values on which our societies are built. We must be decisive. People matter. The law matters. State borders and the right of every nation to determine its own future matters. And while we know that Putin is threatening leaders and countries who can help us force Russia to peace, we must not give in. I thank you for every package of defense assistance to Ukraine. Every weapon you have provided helps to defend normal life—the kind of life you live here in Iceland or in any of your other countries, a life that no longer exists in Russia, where basic human rights have been taken away. We are now in the third year of a full-scale war, and our soldiers on the front lines need fresh strength. That is why we are working to equip our brigades. This is an urgent need. We are already cooperating with others—France has helped to equip one brigade, and we have an agreement on another. We invite you to join us in creating brigades, Scandinavian brigades, and demonstrate your continued commitment to the defense of Europe. I am grateful to Denmark and other partners who invest in arms production in Ukraine. Artillery, shells, drones—everything that allows Ukraine to defend itself despite any logistical delays on the part of partners or changing political moods in world capitals. We see that Putin is increasing weapons production, and rogue regimes like Pyongyang are helping him with this. Next year, Putin intends to catch up with the EU in munitions production. We can only prevent this now (...). - Translated from Ukrainian

I think the main purpose in life is to be needed, not just to be a blank space that breathes, walks, and eats. But to live, to know that certain things depend on your being alive, and to feel that your life matters to others.

But if you weren’t convinced by Mueller’s report, if you believe President Trump’s actions in 2016 did not warrant impeachment, then this book is for you. Because the proven facts of what President Trump has done with Ukraine far eclipse the allegations of his campaign’s coordination with Russia in 2016. Whereas Mueller’s report could not prove collusion, in this case there is no doubt President Trump tried to collude with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine—because we have notes from the call, released by President Trump himself, demonstrating our president doing exactly that.

We’re all inclined to project our own qualities onto other people. But some people are different. There are those with whom it’s just not possible to make a connection.

He remembers giving himself a pep talk that would play in his mind throughout the day. "They're watching," he told himself. "You're a symbol. You need to act the way a head of state must act." As the day wore on, his aides could see Zelensky's posture stiffen. His tone became clipped, and he began to issue a stream of orders from the bunker and from his office on the fourth floor. Most of his decisions had no real basis in experience or planning. Zelensky had neither of these things to guide him at the time, but he didn't seem to mind. His assent to the presidency from the world of comedy would not have been possible without a knack for projecting confidence even when he lacked it. Now that skill went into overdrive, and Zelensky became what one of his aides described as a "decision generator.

My life today is beautiful," he said at the end of the press conference, when a reporter asked how he was holding up. "I feel that I'm needed." The previous week, as horrifying and tragic as it had been for him and his country, was also among the most exciting and fulfilling of his life. He would not trade it for any of the comfort and security he knew in his old life as a movie star. "I think the main purpose in life is to be needed, not just to be a blank space that breathes, walks, and eats. But to live, to know that certain things depend on you being alive, and to feel that your life matters to others.

Still, in those early hours of war, when Ukraine's survival as a country was at stake, Zelensky had no time to weigh risks and analyze data, and he did not need much prompting to fire off instructions to his staff, routinely flavored with profanities.

Now, when he was truly vulnerable, one Russia missile strike away from death, the president carried an air of invincibility, as though the war had made him grow some stubborn armor that no weapon in the world could break. If this was an act, it looked convincing right down to the details, the way he settled into the seat across from me like a sovereign into a hereditary throne. The presence of all these aides, all these bodyguards, no longer made him feel self-conscious. He saw no need to maintain an ironic distance between himself and the symbols of power around him. The role was his now.

President Zelensky visited Bucha a few days after the Russian retreat, and he would long remember it as the most terrifying moment of that tragic year of war, another turning point for him and his country. It showed him, as he later put it, that the devil is not far away, not a feature of our myths and nightmares. "He's here on this earth," Zelensky said.

He warned them again and again in his speeches that the loss of freedom in one nation erodes the freedom in all the rest. "If they devour us," he told me on the train, "the sun in your sky will get dimmer.

The president asked his staff to prepare a bed for him in a little room behind his office on the fourth floor. It was a single, about the same size as his bed in the bunker, with a wooden headboard and a TV suspended on the wall above his feet. In the closet, he kept several changes of clothes from local military outfitters, who gave him an ample supply of the T-shirts and fleeces that turned Zelensky into an unlikely fashion icon. "I had to tell them to stop," he said. "They all wanted me to wear their T-shirts." Hanging next to them in his closet he kept a single business suit, pressed and ready, he said, for the day when the war would end in victory for Ukraine.

Wars are fought in the minds of men and women long before the shooting starts, and Zelensky, the showman turned president, operated on that plane.