The Russian Federation consciously increases the crisis of life value in many countries, which is why we have to resist its aggression together - a speech of the President of Ukraine before the university community of Chile
It is a struggle not only for the state and the opportunity for our people to determine their future independently. In fact, the primary motif of Russian aggression against Ukrainians is a purely colonialization. The Russian leadership wants domination over Ukrainian land and our resources. And in Moscow it sounded for a long time that without the capture of the territory of Ukraine they would not restore the Russian Empire.
However, it has become a much deeper struggle than any imperial or geopolitical calculations. Russia is leading the war literally against the lives of our people, against the right of Ukrainians to live. And this war began not 175 days ago. On February 24 this year, Russia moved to massive aggression - to attacks from the north, from the east and from the south at once; All our ports on the Black, Azov Sea were blocked; Massive rocket strokes have begun throughout Ukraine.
But it was a continuation of the war. The wars that began in 2014. It began when Russia occupied the Crimea Peninsula, ignited the confrontation in the Donbass, which took away thousands of lives. Thousands. Therefore, when we talk about Russia's war against Ukraine, we talk about eight years plus 175 days. And when we talk about the victims of this war, about Ukrainian losses, we start a story not in February 2022. We start it in 2014, when Ukrainians began to kill simply for being Ukrainians.
For the Ukrainian flag. For the pro -Ukrainian position. For the protection of the Ukrainian territory. Even simply suspicion that a person supports the Ukrainian state. Today I want to tell you about one such person. About the guy who would be 25 years old this fall, and he would probably be very similar to you now. He was called Stepan Chubenko. He was from the city of Kramatorsk in Donbass. A light young man. He was remembered good and very active.
If he joined a university that looked like yours, he probably would have become one of the student leaders. He may not betray his dream, choose a sports career and would be able to become a goalkeeper of one of the teams known to you. I ask you to look at these photos now - that's how it was. It was killed on July 27, 2014. He was killed by militants - one of whose hands Russia waged a hybrid war in the Donbass and whom it now uses in a full -scale war. They detained Stepan when he returned home.
They saw a blue and yellow ribbon on his backpack-the colors of our flag. And it was a sufficient reason for them to attack the guy. He was beaten for several days, tortured, shot. Only in mid -August of that year, weeks after the murder, Stepan's mother managed to find out what happened to her son. But she was not given his body. Only in November 2014 managed to bury him. Stepan's mother has the last SMS message from him: "I call you later, I love you.
" Its murderers hid in Russia and Crimea occupied by Russia. They received sentences from the Ukrainian court. But the terrorist state Russia gives them protection. They, like thousands of other killers, to them. Those who shot people simply for being Ukrainian. Just because they were Ukrainians in Ukraine. Those who fired at the nape of men and women for just a suspicion that a person is protecting our country. Those who fired direct tanks on residential buildings shot at schools and hospitals.
Those who beat from artillery to peaceful cities. It began even then, in 2014, and 175 days ago became a maximum scale, which was capable of the Russian army, Russian mercenaries from the so-called military companies, which are de facto part of the special services of the terrorist state. Russia really seeks to seize the territory of Ukraine. And she needs this territory without Ukrainians.
Mariupol destroyed and dozens of cities and villages of Ukraine, massacres in Bucha and other cities in the occupied territory are no exceptions to the general Russian strategy, it is - a Russian strategy for Ukraine and Ukrainians. Tens of thousands of our people have been held in the so -called filtration camps that have arranged the Russian military. Thousands of Ukrainian children are deported from the territory to which the Russian army entered.
They have been taken to Russia, and Russian officials try to do their best to make these children lose any connection with their families and just forget who they are. In the occupied territory, the monuments and museums that simply remind Ukraine are destroyed. Destroy books. Everyone is forced to give up national identity, their aspirations, dreams and to obey violence and robbery or perish. Ukraine has already lost tens of thousands of its people in this war.
Quite small children - several months of kids killed by Russian missiles, shells and balls. Teenagers. Men and women. Elderly people. Russia does not disassemble who to kill and to mock. For her, everyone is the same target. And this is not the excess of war, it is her conscious policy. Therefore, we have no choice other than fighting for the lives of Ukrainians, for not being killed in Ukraine for a blue-yellow ribbon on a teenager's backpack. And this struggle can only last victory.
Do not count how many times before February 24 I suggested that Russia end the war and negotiate peace. In different formats, with different mediations. The years went to different negotiations. But Russia's leadership has chosen terror, not an agreement. She chose what they did in Mariupol, in Bucha, not peace. And when in Moscow they saw that the world would not close their eyes to Russian atrocities, they wanted to put their knees and the whole world.
That is why the food crisis became such an acute. That is why Russia consciously destabilizes energy markets. That is why Russian policy deliberates the crisis of living value in many countries. And that is why we have to counter Russian aggression together. When a state transforms energy poverty or famine into weapons, it is a blow to everyone in the world. When a state tries to conquer another because he wants to be a colonizer, it is a threat to anyone who values its independence.
And when people are killed simply for being that they are, for being their people, for not giving up their homeland, it is a threat to humanity as such. Will you be able to stay away? Will you be able to remain indifferent? I don't believe it. That is why you are here today. Because you value the truth. And I don't ask you a lot. I ask you to spread in my country and in my region only the truth about this war. It is necessary to resist Russian propaganda.