"Only our victory will guarantee the future of the European way of life", defended the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, during a solemn speech before the plenary session of the European Parliament, which he mainly devoted to warning of the threat posed by the Vladimir Putin regime to the whole continent and emphatically thank the help provided by Europe - at all levels, political, economic, military and, above all, human - to your country. The Europe of values and the rule of law "is also our Europe, our way of life. For Ukraine, the EU is the way home", said Zelenski, who was received with applause, cheers and bravos in the Eurochamber .
"This total war of Russia is not a war for the territory of a part of Europe", Putin "wants to destroy all the elements of the lifestyle of the Twenty-seven", "the values of Europe", for which he has started by creating a regime of terror in Russia, from where "it instigates xenophobia and tries to normalize it on the continent, so that the horrors of the 1930s are a reality today," Zelensky warned. "We fight against the most anti-European force in the world", "we defend ourselves and we defend you". "If Ukraine falls, Europe falls", he said in front of a packed chamber, full as on few occasions, as were the public stands, among which there were people dressed in traditional Ukrainian costumes or dressed in the colors of the flag of the country. "Long live Ukraine!" They have shouted on several occasions.
The words of Zelenski, who has chosen to express himself in Ukrainian, have been interrupted by expressions of support on several occasions. "This applause is not for me, it is for the people of Europe who support Ukraine in this historic battle," he said, emphasizing that "everyone", and especially ordinary citizens, "can influence the victory of Ukraine" with its daily actions. He was speaking before the European institution that directly represents the citizenry and it has been a speech focused on it, on the people. Lastly, the Ukrainian leader thanked the European Parliament resolutions supporting Ukraine's entry into the EU a few days after the invasion. "That is the vision that motivates us to be strong and stand firm," he concluded.
As the official Ukrainian and EU anthems played, and Zelensky and Metsola together held a European flag, Ukrainian banners waved from the audience rostrum. "I have come because we are living through a historical period and I believe that I have a duty of memory to the generation of my grandparents, who knew the war and sacrificed themselves so that today we can be free," said Jeanne Françoise Gribomont, a retired Belgian lawyer who today He had planned to visit the European Parliament with his family and did not want to miss the intervention. "Volodimir Zelenski has extraordinary courage. I remember seeing him speak on television shortly before the invasion, when he knew the fate that awaited him and he did not run away, he accepted this mission, even though he knows it could cost him his life. I felt very small hearing him speak ".
In his welcoming speech to the plenary session, Metsola highlighted precisely the inspiring value of Zelenski's courage and the unequal struggle his country has embarked on. "His leadership of him, President, has inspired his people and people all over the planet. When the world thinks of Ukraine, it thinks of heroes fighting against all odds, of David defeating Goliath," he emphasized. Ukraine "also fights for our values, for the ideals that unite us and make us all Europeans. Because Ukraine is Europe and the future of its nation is in the EU", he said. Metsola has encouraged European leaders to intensify their aid to Ukraine and has asked them to consider "quickly, as a first step, providing long-range defense systems and the aircraft they need to defend freedom", because "our response must be proportional to the threat, and the threat is existential.
Metsola has reiterated the EU's full support for Ukraine and the 10-point peace plan presented by Zelensky. "You don't need to convince anyone here how essential it is to support Ukraine," to "support the values we preach with concrete measures" and to "secure peace based on your plan." "As I told you in April in Kyiv, we are with you. We were with you then, we are now and we will be for as long as it takes. Freedom will win, peace will reign, you will win, slava Ukraini!", he concluded.
Zelenski, in what is his first official visit to the community capital since the beginning of the war, has been received by the Belgian authorities and the leaders of the European institutions at the military airport of Melsbroek. "Welcome home, welcome to the EU", said the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, when receiving the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelensky. Also the presidents of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was part of the welcome committee. Zelensky has arrived in Brussels on the Elysée presidential plane together with Emmanuel Macron from Paris, where he had a working dinner last night with the French president and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
After his speech before the European Parliament, Zelenski has moved to the European Council, where the Twenty-seven will hold a working session with the European leaders. There will also be an opportunity for bilateral meetings with some European leaders, such as the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who was absent yesterday from the Paris meeting (in the past, Macron and Scholz did have Mario Draghi to discuss Ukrainian issues). Since the war began, Zelenski has intervened telematically in six European summits but today will be the first time that he has participated in person.
The visit to the European institutions comes just a week after the EU-Ukraine summit held in Kyiv, where various initiatives to support the country in the economic and military sphere were announced. No new decisions are therefore expected at today's summit in Brussels, but Zelenski has a clear purpose: to raise awareness among European leaders of the need to speed up arms deliveries to their country in order to respond to the Russian counter-offensive that is expected in the coming weeks. "France and Germany have the potential to be a game changer and that is how I see our talks today," Zelensky said in Paris last night. "The sooner we get long-range heavy weapons and our modern aircraft pilots, the sooner this Russian aggression will end."
The Ukrainian leader will also insist on the need to receive combat aircraft, a request that received a first positive response yesterday in London. The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, yesterday opened the door to this possibility as a "long-term" measure and announced that the Government is going to start training pilots to handle these aircraft. "Wings for freedom," Zelensky called them. EU countries are, for the moment, intent on making good on their promises to send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine and among the great powers, there is not much appetite for combat aircraft discussions at the moment.
The Ukrainian president's European tour is his second out of the country since the start of the war, almost a year ago now. On December 21, he traveled by surprise to Washington, where he was received by President Joe Biden at the White House and spoke before the US Congress at a key moment in internal discussions on financial support for the country. Now, Zelensky, in addition to personally defending his country's candidacy for the EU before the leaders of the Old Seven, needs to make Europe aware that he must send more military aid in a matter of weeks, not months. Reinforced by the Wagner group paramilitaries, the Russian army has mobilized hundreds of thousands of civilians and is preparing to go on the attack especially in the Donbas region.
