David Geer, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of North Macedonia, conference “Ukraine-Two years of heroism”, February 26th, 2024.
A great deal has already been said today concerning our collective support for Ukraine. About the courage, endurance and determination of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia’s unprovoked aggression.
The European Union is and will continue to be one of the greatest friends to the Ukrainian people;
– whether by taking Ukrainians into homes across the continent. To-date some 4.2 million Ukrainians are benefitting from the temporary protection granted in EU MS;
- whether by our political support, including last December’s historicdecision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine;
– whether through our tremendous financial and technical assistance as well as our military support together amounting to nearly 90 billion Euros – with more to come.
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Speaking to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada early this month, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, recalled what this war is about. He said:
“Ukrainians always know what they are fighting for. They are fighting for the freedom of their people and their land…..Soldiers are fighting for their very existence; the lives of their families; the future of their children; for their freedom, for their culture. [So] that the Ukrainian language may not fall silent….”
And he went on to say:
“You know which is the real border? The real border today of Ukraine with Russia is the frontline, not only in the battlefields, it is the political frontline between a world governed by law, and freedom, and one where powerful people impose their will inside their society and with no respect to third countries. It is the frontline between democracy and authoritarian rule. Nothing less than that”.
This is why our support is as urgent and essential today as it was two years ago. This is why our support must continue for as long as it takes.
At the same time we should not forget the real suffering of the Ukrainian people – on the front lines and in cities and towns across Ukraine. In that same speech to the Verkhovna Rada, High Representative Borrell reminded us all of what ordinary Ukrainians are experiencing day after day.
Speaking to parliamentarians but also to the entire nation, he said,
QUOTE: Just before arriving in Ukraine, ….I checked the number of air alarms, which have sounded in your skies, in your nights, since Russia’s full-scale invasion. It has been almost 40,000.
40,000 times in which the Ukrainian people had to run quickly to the shelters… 40,000 times that families were rushing to underground shelters. 40,000 times that children were reading in basements. 55 alarms per day, in beautiful places like Kharkiv, Dnipro and Lviv. Quote
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Finally, if I may I should like to take this opportunity to continue to focus on the day to day experiences of Ukrainians in Ukraine – not in my words but in theirs. Through the works of two fine Ukrainian writers – of which there are many at this time.
Let me start with “January pulled him apart” by Marjana Sava from Lyviv.
And now for Anastasia Afanasieva from Kharkiv
“She says we don’t have the right kind of basement in our building…”
SLAVA UKRAINI!
New Ukrainian Poems: Words for War published by Academic Studies Pressn (Boston MA) ad Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (Cambridge, MA).
