Ukraine: Kyiv, visit by Charles Michel today. “Russia’s attack on an apartment building in Dnipro is the latest in a long list of crimes”.

“Russia’s attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, killing dozens, is the latest crime in a long list of crimes. By firing missiles at Ukraine, Russia is firing missiles at all that the European Union believes in”, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on his visit to Kyiv, as he addressed the members of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. For a year, “the world has looked with horror at the war waged against your country. We are horrified by the suffering of your people, we are horrified by the devastation of your cities and horrified by Russia’s brutality, recently in Soledar, in Bahmut”, he added. This is “because you exercised your rights as free Ukrainians, you chose democracy, you chose Europe”, he pointed out. “On Maidan, 22 years after gaining your independence, you, Ukrainians said: ‘We are European’. So today, I have come to Ukraine to tell you: ‘We are all Ukrainians’”. This is a strategy “of systematic destruction, to force you into submission, to force your country into a vassal state. It is doomed to fail. And it will fail. Ukraine is unbreakable, Ukrainians are united, resilient, brave and rightfully proud”. According to Michel, “today, Volodymyr Zelenskyy embodies” the spirit of Ukraine’s national resistance. “Russia miscalculated. The collapse of Ukraine did not happen and will not happen. The EU is more united than ever. And our transatlantic ties are closer than ever”, Michel concluded.
Valentina Bombelli