“Ukrainians are stronger than intrigue, lies, IPSO, pain, despondency, despair and discord. Ukrainians are stronger than fear.”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky congratulated Ukrainians on the New Year 2024.
“Ukrainians are stronger than cold and darkness. Ukrainians are stronger than intrigues and lies , IPSO, pain, despondency, despair and discord. Ukrainians are stronger than fear. Ukrainians are stronger than terror. Ukrainians are stronger than evil. Ukrainians are stronger than this war. Ukrainians are stronger together! ”, said the president.
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Here is the text of the congratulations in full:
“Dear people! Dear Ukraine!
2023 is ending very soon. Another year of our independence. Another year of our struggle for independence. Another year of war. War for our land. For our freedom. One for another.
If you ask millions of Ukrainians about what this year was like, you can get millions of different answers. Everyone will remember something different. He will remember someone of his own. Everyone has something to smile about. Because it worked. Everyone has something to cry about. Because of losses. Each of us this year struggled, worked, waited, helped, lived and hoped. In my own way. Everyone.
But everyone will find something common for all Ukrainians this year. The main result of the year, its main achievement: Ukraine has become stronger. Ukrainians have become stronger.
676 days ago we were all challenged. Rockets were flying at us from all sides, a hostile invasion was moving towards us in all directions.
676 days ago, at this place, I addressed you, Ukrainians, and reported the beginning of a full-scale war. We did not know then what awaited us ahead. Many did not believe that we would survive the week. Few believed that we would choose 2022, let alone that we would survive the 23rd. And today we celebrate 2024.
Ukraine is alive. Ukraine lives. Ukraine is fighting and fighting. Ukraine is moving, Ukraine is overcoming the path. Ukraine produces. Ukraine is working. Ukraine exists. And all together – this is not a New Year’s miracle. This is not a fairy tale, not magic, but a reward for each of you. Each of the millions of Ukrainians. Everyone who during this year proved every day and every night: Ukrainians are stronger!
When at the beginning of 23, in January, in February, we overcame, without exaggeration, the hardest winter in history. When they proved: Ukrainians are stronger than cold and darkness. More severe shutdowns and blackout threats. Ukrainians will overcome any power shortage because they have no shortage of perseverance and courage. We didn't disappear into the darkness. The darkness did not swallow us. Darkness has lost to us.
Our energy has remained stable. Our country survived. She won this year. And I want to say thank you to all those who made this possible in the first place.
All our security and defense forces. I am proud of every Ukrainian soldier. As long as you exist, there is Ukraine. I know how courageously and heroically you protect us. All this time. A time of heavy, fierce daily fighting. From the first minutes of January 1 until now, even on New Year’s Eve, when the Ukrainian warrior fights and has no right to give up. You are holding back an evil that has become even greater. But nothing else could. For you gave battle in every direction and in every street, in every house. You were strong. You haven't turned in a single blue-yellow heart. Not a single kilometer of our freedom. It is you. All our warriors. Each and everyone who proves: Ukrainians are stronger than evil.
And I want to thank all our people, I want to thank our people. To everyone who is here today. To everyone I want to say: I’m proud of each of you. Every citizen of Ukraine. Everyone is strong. And I know how difficult it is for everyone today. To everyone who has put their lives on pause. Who put everything off until later, after the victory. Everyone who says: “I work, and this is not a feat, but a duty. I finish the night, and this is not a feat, but the norm.” Everyone who works and fights every day, because they know: wars do not end by themselves – wars end. And they don’t win, they don’t give, they win.
And for this today we must live by the rule: either you work or you fight. Because the world’s largest terrorist organization is against us. And it is obvious how much more we must do, how much more actively we must do, how much stronger our unity and struggle must be.
Everyone knows this who does not ask himself every day: what can I do? And he lives by the formula “I must do more than I can.” For this is what the word “conquer” means. In our language. Win, overpower yourself, overcome, make an extra effort and do more than seemed at first glance. Because in fact, each of us is capable of more.
Our heroic people prove this every day. Our heroes. Our doctors save soldiers at the front and people in civilian cities and villages. Those who prove: Ukrainians are stronger than pain, injury and death. These are our firefighters and rescuers who show: Ukrainians are stronger than fire and rubble. These are the ones who prove: Ukrainians are stronger than any circumstances, stronger than a dead end. Our teachers teaching children despite the war. Online, live or setting up a school in the Kharkov metro. Our railway workers, our drivers, signalmen, engineers. Our volunteers, our diplomats, Ukrainian business, everyone who pays taxes and gives Ukrainians jobs, everyone who sows and harvests crops and gives Ukrainians bread, everyone who gives Ukrainians shelter, everyone who makes shells and ammunition, who repairs and builds, restores and revives, works every day, proves every day: Ukrainians are stronger than fatigue. This means that Ukrainians are stronger than this war. February 24 convinced us of this.
The war taught us a lot. Showed a lot. She did a lot to us, changed us.
The war, unfortunately, separated families, took sons and daughters, and at the same time united us into one big family. And on February 24 we made a choice. And the dry, emotionless truth of the realities of war is that this choice was different. Someone stayed here in Ukraine, someone ran, someone was blocked, someone took their children out, someone went to the front, someone saved others, someone saved their family, someone left and stayed there, while someone left and returned home. In Ukraine.
And these are the stories of people, the stories of boys and girls. Who could not sit at home and went to the front. And those who could no longer sit abroad, somewhere far from home, returned. By understanding and saying to myself, “I care. And I'm needed here. Victory needs me, Ukraine needs me.” The one who proved: I am stronger than fear. Those who have proven: I am stronger than doubt. Because I know that one day I will have to ask myself the question: who am I? Make a choice about who I want to be. Victim or winner? Refugee or citizen? And everyone knows the answer. And the answer is Ukraine. Because Ukrainians are stronger together. So it's time to be together!
And this is the time that all those Ukrainians who are now in the temporarily occupied territories are waiting for. Everyone who has not lost Ukraine within themselves. He didn’t let his heads, his hearts be occupied. Everyone who keeps Ukraine in their children. Shore our flag. I believe in the return of Ukraine. He knows that all his expectations are not in vain. And I want you to feel our gratitude to you for this. And they remembered: without each of you, Ukraine will be incomplete, incomplete.
And today we celebrate the New Year together. According to our time. And exactly at 12 we will sing our anthem together – the anthem of Ukraine. With love for Ukraine. And this love is stronger than occupation. This love for Ukraine is the driving force that the invaders are so afraid of. And Crimea, Donbass, Luhansk region, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Mariupol – all ours – know: the enemies are really very afraid of you. It is not international organizations with political appeals, but the Ukrainian spirit of the Ukrainian people who prove and will prove that we are stronger. For bondage. Stronger than the enemy. Stronger than this war. Because we are such a people.
And such people inspire – you see – the whole world. And they want to see such a state in the European family. This confirms the decision to begin negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. A solution that others have been pursuing for decades. A decision that was once difficult to believe in, about which skeptics said: “It’s not soon, it’s not tomorrow, it’s almost impossible. Don’t hope, don’t believe, don’t wait.” But Ukraine in 2023 is focused, tough, consistent, decisive and stubborn. Ukrainians are stronger than any blockades and vetoes, disbelief or skepticism. A country that, during a war, carries out extremely complex and necessary reforms and changes. And as a result, a country that is expected in the European Union today. And these are no longer just words – official decisions, official documents. And this process will definitely have a logical conclusion – full membership in a strong Europe. Strong. From Lisbon to Lugansk.
And this is truly a historic victory. And there have been many such diplomatic victories this year. And all of them were not easy for us. The Ukrainian peace formula, which has already been supported by 80 countries. Security guarantees for Ukraine, to which three dozen states have already joined today. The “grain corridor” about which we were told: “You will never be able to live without Russia.” We were blocked and blackmailed, but we found a way out. And they found it, and our corridor is working, and today about 13 million tons of Ukrainian grain passed through it. This year, Ukrainians proved: we are stronger than lies, we are stronger than IPSO. Stronger than despair, discord, despondency. Maintaining international support for Ukraine. Multiplying it. Opening up new directions, new prospects for Ukraine. Having held 120 leadership-level meetings this year alone, which brought us 156 defense support packages alone. Proving once again: Ukrainians are stronger than any intrigues, for all attempts to weaken global solidarity and undermine the coalition of our allies. She's grown up. Patriot coalition, air coalition, tank coalition.
And separately, I want to thank every country that joined the coalition to return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. I thank all our partners for the fact that this year we already have “Petriots”, “Irises”, “Hymars”, “Nasams”, “Goki”, “Abrams”, “Leopards” and much more. And our pilots are already mastering the F-16, and we will definitely see them in our skies. So that our enemies will definitely see what our real rage is.
And next year the enemy will feel the wrath of domestic production. Our weapons, our equipment, artillery, our shells, our drones, sea greetings to the enemy and at least a million Ukrainian FPVs. Everything we will generously treat you with. On land, in the air and, of course, at sea. On our Black Sea. And this year the enemy felt like never before: he doesn’t belong there. And our actions in the Black Sea became a black page in the history of the Russian fleet.
This can be officially “confirmed” by their large landing ships, missile and patrol corvettes on the seabed. And our Snake is now without their snakes and tricolor.
Dear Ukrainians, Ukrainians!
This year Ukraine has overcome 6 thousand alarms. Almost every night I woke up from sirens, went down to the shelter, protecting my children from enemy missiles and drones. And every night and every day our air defense forces worked, heroically defending the skies of Ukraine. So that we can hear the lights out 6 thousand times. And go up 6 thousand times. Climb up. Look into the sky and prove this again: Ukrainians are stronger than terror.
And no matter how many missiles the enemy fires, no matter how many shellings and attacks – vile, merciless, massive – in an effort to break us, Ukrainians, to intimidate, knock Ukraine off its feet, drive it underground, we will still rise. For the one who brings hell to our earth will one day see it from his own window.
676 days ago I spoke from this office, from my workplace.
Behind my back then was a drawing – a landscape with views of the Ukrainian land. Today behind me are the chevrons of our soldiers. And each of them speaks about our land, and about our sky, and about our entire Ukraine, about our people, about what we could, and about what we can. About everyone who has left. And about everyone who is struggling. And about everyone who will live on this earth. And he will be proud to be Ukrainian. For the whole world will know: Ukrainians are stronger!
I wish for everyone who has already found themselves in our common cause that you will always have those nearby who will lend a shoulder and will not let you down in life. I wish everyone who is still hesitating to make a bold choice next year – to defend their own country, to work for it, to help, to find themselves in their own state, because this is the only place on earth where we can all say about ourselves: we Houses.
And just like in the past on December 31, today we say: “We don’t know exactly what the new year will bring us.” But this year we can add: “Whatever it brings, we will be stronger.” And now I want to say words that before the war were considered banal, but during the war are priceless.
I wish you, your families, loved ones, all your relatives warmth and health.
To those who have a kindred heart, may they live long. Let those who have been lost remain in your heart.
For your loved ones – time. There is more time than anything.
For children – the fulfillment of your desires.
To all people – human happiness.
And for our Ukraine – victory and peace.”
