The European Parliament holds an extraordinary plenary session following the Russian attacks in Ukraine. Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine, intervenes remotely to address MEPs.

EU - Ukraine (T)

debate

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

troubles in Ukraine (T)

ZELENSKYY, Volodymyr (UA)

Extraordinary Plenary session on the Russian aggression against Ukraine: Statement by Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine - Full speech without cutaways of the plenary

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine You know, over the last couple of days, I don't know how to welcome and greet everybody because I cannot say good morning or can say good afternoon or good evening. And I cannot. And that's true. Because every day for some people, this day is not good. For some people, this day is the last one. I speak today now about my citizens, citizens of Ukraine who are defending by paying the ultimate price. They are defending freedom.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine I am very happy that what I've seen here now and heard here now, I'm very glad to sense this mood, the uniting, unifying mood. I'm happy that we have unified today, all of you, all the countries of the European Union. But this is that this is the price they will have to pay. And this a tragedy for for me, it's a tragedy for every Ukrainian, a tragedy for our state. I mean, this high price, very high price. Thousands of people who were killed, two revolutions, one war and five days of full scale invasion from the Russian Federation.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine You am know, I not read off the paper, of the sheet because the paper phase in this in the life of my country has ended. Now we are dealing with reality. We're dealing with killed people, real life. And, you know, I believe that we today we're giving lives for values, for the rights, for freedom, for the desire to be equal as much as you are. We are giving away our best people, the strongest ones, the most valorous ones. Ukrainians are incredible.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine And very often we love to say that we will win over everyone. And I'm very happy that you are not only talking about it, but you can see that. And indeed we will overcome everyone. And I'm sure of this. There is an expression: European choice of Ukraine. That's what we are striving for and that's what we're going to do. So I would like to hear that from you to us: the ukrainian choice for Europe, from you. I have had some time off here because we have a between the missile strikes and bombardments.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine And this morning was a very tragic one for us: two cruise missiles hit Kharkiv, a city which is located to the borders of the Russian Federation. There were always many Russians there and they're always friendly. There were warm relations there. More than 20 universities are there. It's the city that has the largest number of universities in our country. The youth is bright, smart there. The people gathered there all the time for celebrating in the largest square in our country, the Freedom Square. The largest square in Europe. And that's true. This is called the Freedom Square. Can you imagine? This morning two cruise missiles hit this freedom Square, dozens of killed ones. This is the price of freedom.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine We are Fighting just for our land and for our freedom. Despite the fact that all large cities of our country are now blocked, nobody is going to enter and intervene without freedom in our country. And believe you me, every square from today, no matter what it's called, it's going to be called as today, Freedom Square in every city of our country. Nobody is going to break us. We are strong, we are Ukrainians.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine We have a desire to see our children alive. I think it's a fair one. Yesterday, sixteen children were killed. Again and again. President Putin is going to say that is some kind of operation and we are hitting a military infrastructure. What kind of military factories do our children work at? What tanks are they going with or launching cruise missiles? He killed sixteen people just yesterday.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine Our people are very much motivated. Very much so. We are fighting for our rights, for our freedoms, for life, for our life. And now we are fighting for survival. And this is the highest of our motivation. But we are fighting also to be equal members of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Ukranian), Volodymyr ZELENSKY, President of Ukraine I believe that today we are showing everybody that's exactly what we are. The European Union is going to be much stronger with that. So that's for sure without you, Ukraine is going to be lonely, lonesome. We have proven our strength. We have proven that as at a minimum, we are exactly the same as you are. So do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans and then life will win over death and lt will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine.