“Imagine Your Neighbour Took Your Children”: Zelensky Speaks Emotionally About Donbas and Crimea

“Any victories or achievements are incomplete, because our family is not whole.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared the occupation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine to the abduction of children.

In his speech marking Independence Day, the head of state said that for him every corner of Ukraine is one big family, and “for those who do not understand the pain Ukrainians feel today,” Zelensky decided to explain what is happening “in a very accessible language.”

Volodymyr Zelensky
President of Ukraine

Imagine, for example, that a neighbour took two of your children. The first child was simply kidnapped. He was issued a new birth certificate. And then they say: we didn’t take your child. He wanted to live with us himself. So what if it was at gunpoint? It is his wish. And anyway, who told you he is your child? He has been ours since time immemorial. Don’t worry, it will be better for him here, we have a wonderful camp by the sea, under the sun.

And then, when five years had passed, the president noted, those who were worried began to say that everything was fine.

“The child no longer cries for you. And anyway, he doesn’t look much like you. Why do they say that? Because he is not their child,” the head of state stressed.

Zelensky compared the part of Donbas occupied by Russia to a second child who has been locked in a nursery room, surrounded by armed guards.

Volodymyr Zelensky
President of Ukraine

You are told: what guards? There is no one there. And you hear how, right here, behind the wall, your child is crying, but you cannot go in. Every day, each of us has a heart that breaks. And any victories or achievements are incomplete, because our family is not whole.

Volodymyr Zelensky expressed confidence that a day will come when this ends.

“We will definitely come together. Because the voice of our own blood will win!” the president declared.

Earlier today, the head of state, by his decree, established the Day of Remembrance of Defenders who died in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence.

In connection with the celebration of Ukraine’s 28th anniversary of independence, several metro stations in Kyiv were closed and traffic of other transport was restricted.