Fellow Ukrainians!
Today – on Defenders’ Day, on the Feast of the Intercession – we in Ukraine honor everyone who has joined the defense of our state, everyone who puts in their efforts so that the entire country may prevail. We honor the people – and these are millions – who together keep Ukraine alive. We honor every component of the Defense and Security Forces, our first responders, everyone working for our defense, and everyone who, in their own way, is a defense for Ukraine – for their community, or for those nearby.
And, of course, it is right that today we also recognize our communities in Ukraine, our cities that so often bear the greatest weight in defense and resilience. Today is exactly the right day to thank such cities. In 2022, we established a special title for Ukrainian cities that made it possible for Ukraine to withstand that extremely difficult year. Ten cities received the title of Hero Cities: Bucha, Volnovakha, Hostomel, Irpin, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Okhtyrka, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv. Each of these cities embodies a story of the highest Ukrainian heroism.
Today – on this Defenders’ Day, on the Feast of the Intercession – we honor more Hero Cities, cities of heroes. I have signed a decree. These are cities thanks to which thousands of lives of our people have been saved. Cities that defend our entire state – in the fullest sense of those words. In the Dnipro region – Pavlohrad, a city of strength for Ukraine, a city that serves as a strategically important hub for evacuating our people, and a city that has become a hospital base for the wounded from the front. Also Nikopol – a truly heroic industrial city, under relentless shelling, yet continuing to work. Marhanets – suffering daily strikes, a city that faced great hardship after Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam, yet endures thanks to its community, to the heroism of the entire Dnipro region, and of every region that came to help.
In the Donetsk region – Druzhkivka, one of the brightest cities of Donbas, now scarred by Russian shelling, yet a city that defends itself and defends others. Kramatorsk – one of our industrial pillars, one of the strongest centers in all of Ukraine’s East. A city that has been defending the state since 2014. Kostiantynivka – standing against Russia’s extraordinary brutality, and the community endures, and the city itself holds firm. Pokrovsk – a hero that means so much for our defense, and a city of many of our heroes, our warriors, who in the Pokrovsk area, on the Pokrovsk front, and in the city itself are holding out in fierce battles and destroying the occupier in a way that is felt globally – the world sees this heroism. Slovyansk – a city-symbol, the city where Ukraine’s defense began, and a city that today gives strength to our warriors and works for the defense of Donbas.
Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region – a great history, and centuries of Ukrainian strength in the South. And today, the city stands in defense of the region and the state. Orikhiv – enduring constant shelling, yet holding very strong defensive positions. Voznesensk and Bashtanka – cities of the Mykolaiv region, cities of people who did not give in despite everything, who fought, and cities thanks to which Ukraine managed to thwart Russia’s plans to seize our South. Sumy – a Hero City, a city of heroes, a city the Russians were preparing to capture and even went so far as to announce it – but they did not, and they will not. One of the greatest failures of the Russian Federation. Our Trostianets in the Sumy region – a city that stood heroically in 2022. Now it also stands in defense. And it was there, in Trostianets, in the first year of this war, that the broad Russian offensive toward Okhtyrka, Lebedyn, and Sumy was stopped.
Our Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region – a city now facing especially hard times, a city where fighting continues, suffering from Russia’s treachery and savagery, yet defended by truly heroic people, a city heroically shielding the Kharkiv region from Russia.
And finally – Starokostiantyniv, a city in the Khmelnytskyi region, a city of strategic importance for our entire state, for our defense industry, for our aviation. Nearly 460 Russian strikes have targeted Starokostiantyniv during this war – yet the city heroically endures.
The resilience of each person is the resilience of all of Ukraine, and the heroism of the nation begins with the courage of every one of our hearts. I am proud of you! It is an honor to represent such a nation, such cities, such communities, such brave people.
Glory to Ukraine!