Speeches

Ukraine is a peace-loving nation with no expansionary plans or territorial claims. No inch of Russia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was violated by us. Utmost respect for the UN Charter and for the OSCE Helsinki principles has been the foundation of our foreign policy since independence.

I believe my strategic mission is to ensure the irreversibility of European and Euro-Atlantic integration. To apply for membership in the European Union and receive a NATO Membership Action Plan by 2023. This is our common task. I would like to invite Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in the presence of the President of the European Council - one of the leaders of the European Union, a friend of Ukraine Donald Tusk to certify the unity of all branches of power in the matter of European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

And now we have to move forward resolutely, along the road to membership in the EU and NATO. A great friend of Ukraine and a great friend of mine Jens Stoltenberg said this week that NATO's doors are open to any country that is capable of reforming and ensuring the fulfillment of the goals of the Washington Treaty. This is exactly about Ukraine. For the past five years, we have been doing that.

Peace is not only about the absence of war. Peace is about freedom. It is about being a master on your own land. It is also about the right to freely choose and determine your own future. That is why for us peace and freedom are undivided. For us, Ukrainians, these values are not abstract, but very special ones. We know for sure what we fight for.

Today's event in the history of our country will remain in line with St. Vladimir’s baptism and the proclamation of Ukraine's independence. The Orthodox world will remember the day when the Church of Ukraine possessing equal rights joined the family of sister churches.

A moment later and the chronicle of the year 2018 will be left in the archive of the Ukrainian history. It has a special place there. Near 1991, when our state independence was declared.

Today is December 15. I ask everyone who is watching us now: in Ukraine, all over the world - remember very well. This day will enter or has already entered the history of Ukraine as a sacred day, the day of the creation of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The day of the final gaining of Ukrainian independence from Russia. And Ukraine will no longer drink, as Taras Shevchenko said, "Moscow’s poison from the Moscow’s bowl".

Martial law does not mean the declaration of war. It is introduced solely for the purpose of strengthening Ukraine's defense against the background of growing aggressiveness from Russia. Martial law does not mean our retreat from the political-diplomatic settlement in the east.

Only Ukraine's integration into the Euro-Atlantic area guarantees us peace and security, independence and poverty alleviation. We will not retreat from this strategy. Ukraine, going its own way, will definitely become a full member of NATO and a full member of the European Union.

Autocephaly is the part of our pro-European and pro-Ukrainian state strategy, which we have been consistently implementing over the past four years and, I emphasize, which we will implement hereafter. This is the foundation of our own path of development, the development of the State of Ukraine and the development of the Ukrainian nation.