Dear Ukrainian people! 


I am speaking in front of the Mother Ukraine monument. A Ukraine that stands firmly, that is not bowing her head, that looks ahead of her, believes in her future and in victory over the evil Russia brought us. A Ukraine with a sword and a shield, capable of securing a just peace. Of protecting her people, her colours, her independence. Today I’m addressing everyone who values Ukraine, protects their country, and whose words "This is my country" are filled with love. I am grateful to you for 2024. To you, Ukrainian people, who overcome hardship with dignity. People who pride themselves on being Ukrainian. I too pride myself on being the president of such people, of Ukrainian people who show that no cruise missile can defeat a people that has wings.

During this year, a leap year, we proved this daily. We saw this yesterday, when we were overjoyed at the return of 189 Ukrainians from Russian captivity. They will celebrate the arrival of the new year at home. Because we’re bringing our people back, 1,358 people this year, 3,956 people [since the beginning of the full-scale invasion]. These are not estimates but exact numbers, because behind these numbers are people, our people, people who matter to us. With each person we bring back, we also bring back life.

And we all cry each time this happens. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mother moved to tears, or a child who finally got to see their dad again, or the President of Ukraine – we all cry, because we are all humans, and we have all managed to preserve our inner light.

This light has helped us stand our ground for more than 1,000 days now. To be brave when it is so needed. To be strong when it is so needed. This is what our teachers, doctors, energy and transport workers, air defence personnel and mobile fire units have done. Soldiers who have shot down 1,310 cruise and ballistic missiles and 7,800 Iranian Shahed drones this year. Bravo! We are so proud of them! We are so grateful. We made it through this year together. Together we overcame everything this year brought: victories and defeats, triumphs and challenges, tears of joy when we managed what we set out to do, and tears of pain when we encountered setbacks and had our hearts broken.

A morning in July. Okhmatdyt children’s hospital. Only weak people and cowards act like that. We will never forget those kids’ eyes. And we will never forgive! When evil brings death, we respond by forming a human chain. That’s what Ukrainian people’s strength looks like. Our unity was visible from space. God saw it. Saw our people, our kids. And I will never forget the eyes of the little boy from Okhmatdyt, a grown-up’s eyes, so full of resolve, of life, of energy and dignity. This one child is so much stronger than Putin. All of our children are so much stronger than Russia’s evil. Ukrainian boys and girls, who are winning this war, studying online and in basements, winning international science olympiads, raising money for our army, coming up with inventive technical solutions to bolster our defence. You are an incredible generation! You are who we’re fighting for. You are who our heroes, our soldiers are defending. The people holding the line and carrying Ukraine’s independence on their shoulders. On every front, where bravery and valour are fighting every day, including today, on New Year’s Eve. On every front. In the east, where the situation is extremely challenging. But we believe and we know: they will stand. Our soldiers will stand. Their spirit and their bravery will stand. Everything that has enabled you to not surrender our Sumy and Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, however much the Russians wanted to capture those cities. Instead, you have repaid the occupiers by bringing the war to their home, to Russia. And those who brought evil to our land now sow it on theirs, in Kursk Oblast and other places that became targets of our attacks, of our justice.

Justice. Just one word, but hundreds of thousands of our people stand behind it. Our defence industry and our science, which worked to make us stronger, with 30% of weapons and equipment our soldiers used on the battlefield this year having been made in Ukraine.

I once asked a young engineer at a defence production facility: "How were you able to achieve so much, how could these people have done so much?" He quipped back: "They’re not just people, they’re rockets."

And you know, at that moment, I was so ashamed as a citizen that our state had for so long, since the 90s, failed to pay attention to those people. And I’m proud when I hear during meetings throughout the year that they are happy that Ukraine needs them. That Ukraine has resumed domestic production of [defence equipment], of missiles, and is for the first time ever producing more than a million drones a year and forcing the enemy to learn Ukrainian words: Palianytsia, Peklo, Ruta; to shiver from the words Neptun and Samsan. These are all our missiles. Ukrainian-made missiles. Hor, Vampir, Kolibri, KAMIK, Liutyi, Heavy Shot, Fire Point – these are all our drones. Ukrainian-made drones. These are all the arguments we deploy to achieve a just peace.

Only strength can secure it. And we have proven countless times that we have it. Our athletes. Oleksandr Khyzhniak, Olha Kharlan, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, all of our Olympians and Paralympians, whom we supported and rooted for so much, yelling with excitement when our blue-and-yellow flag was raised. We took the punches and fought back together with Oleksandr Usyk. All this is about more than just sport. It’s about our character. About who we are and what we are capable of. It’s about meaning and symbols. It’s about how [Usyk’s] fights, like the daily battles Ukraine faces, show us that it doesn’t matter how much bigger the enemy is, but how much stronger your will is. And the whole world has its breath taken away. Global leaders told me frankly: "We have never seen anything like this, with the entire Notre Dame de Paris hall applauding." That applause was for all of you. All of our people. This is what respect for Ukraine sounds like. This is what independence is. 

When we refuse to give up what is ours or to leave our people, those in Russian captivity, behind. We will fight for every person who unfortunately still remains there. We will fight for everyone whom Russia forced into occupation, but whose Ukrainian hearts it has failed to occupy. And no matter how many passports this evil hands out at gunpoint, our people say: "You are not here forever, you are only here temporarily." And all that imported weed will not take root on our land, will not defeat the people indigenous to this land. I always think of the story of an old Ukrainian man, whom the occupiers asked, in Russian: "What time is it?" And he said, in Ukrainian: "It’s time for you to get off our land." This is what will is, will that is impossible to occupy. And I want to say to everyone in the temporarily occupied territories who carries this will inside: Dear Ukrainians! I know that you are celebrating the New Year according to our time zone, and you are hearing these words right now in our Crimea, in Donbas, in Melitopol, in Mariupol – everywhere where people wait for Ukraine’s return, and where one day Ukraine will return, for all of us to be together again. The only thing that will stand between Ukrainians will be a generous table. 

I know that all of our people will meet at this table, including those who are abroad now but who have preserved Ukraine in their hearts. The Ukrainian national anthem will be heard in the first moments of the new year in Warsaw, New York and Buenos Aires, and people in Berlin, Prague and Tokyo will say to each other: "Glory to Ukraine!" And the world will reply: "Glory to heroes!" Because Ukraine is not alone. Because our friends stand by our side. The US stood with Ukraine since the first moments of this war, and I believe that the US will still be by Ukraine’s side in the first moments of peace.

I remember my conversation with [US President] Joe Biden after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. I remember my conversation with Donald Trump after the election. All of my conversations with US Congresspeople, Senators, and ordinary Americans – conversations with people who support us in the US, in Europe, and the world over. A common refrain across all these conversations was this:  Putin cannot win. Ukraine will prevail.

I am grateful to every American who put these words into action. I have no doubt that the new American President is willing and able to bring about peace and put an end to Putin’s aggression. He understands that the former is impossible without the latter. Because this is not a street fight where you have to appease the two sides. This is a full-scale aggression of a deranged state against a peaceful one. And I believe that we, together with the United States, are capable of showing the strength we need to show, of forcing Russia to accept a just peace. That means not forgetting or forgiving everything that Russia has done: Bucha, Olenivka, Avdiivka, all of our destroyed towns and villages. A truly just peace cannot begin with starting from scratch. Because the score is not 0–0. The score is thousands and thousands of Ukrainians whose lives were taken by Russia.

Ukraine’s heart today is riddled with scars, the names of our fallen heroes. God forbid any other family in the world go through anything like this. I would not wish on any world leader to experience the feelings I have experienced when presenting posthumous awards and seeing the eyes of mothers, wives and children of soldiers who have given their lives for Ukraine and hearing from them: "Please don’t let it be in vain." Thousands of our men and women have been killed. They are always here, with us, they look down on us from the heavens. And we have no right to let them down, to betray their heroic deeds and their memory.

Each day in the new year I – and all of us – have to keep fighting for Ukraine, for it to be strong enough. Because only a Ukraine that is strong enough is heard and respected, on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.

I am grateful to everyone who stood by our side, our partners, allies, friends and leaders. True leaders, who I’m calling that not because this is a common turn of phrase, but because they have proven their mettle with their actions. People who were not afraid to come to Ukraine, knowing how important it is to physically stand side by side. People alongside whom we worked across distance and time zones to find solutions and achieve results: Patriots, IRISs, NASAMS and ATACMS, F-16s, Scalps and Storm Shadows. The Czech initiative to give Ukraine one million shells. The Danish model and the hundreds millions invested in domestic production. Twenty seven security agreements and 40 billion to support our army. The European Union’s decision to give €50 billion to support our economy. The Group of Seven and their decision concerning US$50 billion of frozen Russian assets. These were huge international undertakings, our great international victory. I am grateful to our partners, grateful to you, grateful to the team. The army, the government, the Office [of the President of Ukriane], the parliament, the regions and communities, the volunteers. Everyone working to make our country stronger and who takes care of our people.

I am grateful to everyone who has helped Ukraine stand and endure. Ukraine will achieve peace and strength. It will become a European Ukraine. And these are not just words. They became reality in June this year with the opening of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, a historic achievement. This path is irreversible. Ukraine will be in the European Union. And one day Ukraine will be in NATO, strengthening the Alliance and stability worldwide. Europe’s unity determines the fate of every nation on the continent. And this unity must be respected by all, including Budapest and Bratislava. I know that both the Hungarian and Slovak peoples are with us, with Ukraine, with Ukrainian people, on the side of truth. These countries’ leaders also have to see the truth. There is no need to be afraid of Ukraine in Europe, but we need to do everything we can to keep Russia out of Europe. Its tanks, its missiles, and the evil it will surely take further afield if Ukraine does not stand. If Russia shakes your hand today, it does not mean that tomorrow it will not start killing you with the same hand. Because Russians are afraid of free people, of what they are not familiar with. They are afraid of freedom. They were born under Putin, went to school under Putin, went to serve under Putin and are dying for his sick ideas.

That’s why today it is so important to support all the people fighting for their freedom. People in Chișinău who refuse not relinquish their freedom. People in Tbilisi who are fighting for their future. And I’m certain that a day will come when we will all say: "Long live Belarus!"

Dear Ukrainian people! 

May 2025 become our year, Ukraine’s year. We know we will not be gifted peace. But we will do everything to stop Russia and put an end to this war. That’s what every one of us wants.

Mother Ukraine watches over every one of us. She deserves peace. That is what I wish for us all. Next year I will do everything I can to achieve it, as both the President of Ukraine and a Ukrainian citizen. And I will know I am not on my own, that millions of Ukrainians are doing the same by my side. A strong, free, beautiful and independent people.

Happy New Year, dear Ukrainian people!

Happy New Year, Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!