The Speech by the President of the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic Augusto Ernesto Santos Silva in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Dear Mr. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine! Mr. Ruslan Stefanchuk!
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen of the Ukrainian Parliament!
I thank you for inviting me to visit Ukraine. On my own behalf, on behalf of our Parliament, on behalf of the members of our delegation, I would like to say that we have representatives from several political parties in Portugal – socialists, social democrats, liberals. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyi, our hero, the Ukrainian President, and with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal. And I am very honored to address the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada today.
Our delegation has a special purpose: to express the deep solidarity of the Portuguese people with Ukrainians, reaffirming that Portugal fully supports the Ukrainian struggle against its enemy, a ruthless enemy that encroaches on the inalienable right of Ukrainians to have their land and their territory.
On February 24, 2022, our Government, our Parliament, our President of the Republic unanimously condemned the aggression of the russian federation and reaffirmed the principles of the United Nations and the charters of this body, completely rejecting any intention to change the borders of European states by force. And we certainly reaffirm and support Ukraine’s right to defend itself legally. We welcome the Ukrainian displaced persons and support sanctions against those responsible for the invasion, and we also demand an end to the armed aggression and the withdrawal of all troops from all occupied Ukrainian territories.
From the very beginning of the aggression, the Portuguese Parliament has expressed its solidarity with the Ukrainian people and their leadership on many occasions. We recall the session in April 2022 with the President Zelenskyi. We also had a videoconference in May 2022 with Mr. Ruslan, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. And on February 24, we had a plenary debate on the war against Ukraine and expressed our full support for the Ukrainian people and our condemnation of russian aggression. Also, the relevant committees of the Portuguese Parliament and the Portuguese-Ukrainian group held numerous events under the auspices of the Ukrainian Embassy in our capital with the Ukrainian community in Portugal.
Mr. President! Ladies and gentlemen! Mr. Speaker!
It is a horror when one side provokes the other side, which has not only the right but also the duty to defend itself with arms. So, it is time to support Ukraine, we need military equipment and other means to defend the country when an aggressor like russia deliberately targets civilians, bombing cities, residential areas, schools and hospitals, committing war crimes. The international community must act to bring the perpetrators to justice and accountability.
The war in Ukraine concerns the whole of Europe. We cannot allow the logic of imperialist expansion to drag Europe back into the abyss of disorder. We believe that we need to defend international law, the peace of our citizens, to ensure a world order based on rules and good sense, not force.
We want peace in Ukraine, a peace that can only come through the cessation of russian military aggression and the unconditional withdrawal of all russian troops from all occupied Ukrainian territories.
Mr. Chairman, dear friends!
As parliamentarians, we also have a very important role to play by paying close attention to the political rhetoric coming from the kremlin. Illegal narratives are very dangerous and need to be challenged. The fact that russia claims some kind of historical right to what once belonged to the territory dominated by the former russian Empire is a false, misleading idea that is completely unacceptable to us.
The idea that the end of the ussr, and I quote putin here, “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century” is false, and we cannot accept it.
On the contrary, the collapse of the soviet union gave freedom from oppression and enabled a peaceful transition to democracy for many nations and millions of people, the expansion of NATO, the defense alliance. And the very idea that this poses any threat to moscow is false and unacceptable.
The claim that Ukraine’s road to Europe represents any kind of imbalance in Eastern Europe is false and unacceptable. On the contrary, it represents the Ukrainian European path, which reflects the desires, the will of the Ukrainian people, and the European aspirations of this nation: the aspirations for the rule of law, social unity, peace, joint work, security, and spheres or areas of influence.
The assertion that superpowers have the right to influence and oppress their neighbors is unacceptable and wrong for the twenty-first century. All ultra-nationalist doctrines that we must fight to the end and destroy the enemy are wrong and unacceptable. We need rules so that nations can work together on the basis of international law and human rights. And putin’s claim that he has some kind of mission to preserve religious traditions and fight against some kind of moral degradation of the West is false and unacceptable to all of us. On the contrary, free states, pluralistic societies, cosmopolitan culture, and liberal democracies are the best protection for individuals, for their beliefs, traditions, and convictions.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen!
Portugal and Ukraine are two sister countries, very close in their European and Western destiny. We have a great rapprochement between our peoples, because a large Ukrainian community lives in Portugal, speaking two languages – Ukrainian and Portuguese.
Now our ties have become even stronger as Ukraine has started its journey to join the European Union. Portugal fully supports this process and sees the European Union as the place where reforms must take place to respond to the dynamics of the Union’s enlargement. We are strengthening and growing in the joint work between Ukraine and NATO, where Portugal is one of the founding members, and this work is intensifying.
In conclusion, I believe that Portuguese diplomacy can add quality to international support for our common struggle. Fortunately, the coalition of countries that politically and diplomatically support Ukraine, condemning russian aggression without any reservations, is a very broad coalition. But we need to continue to expand it, to facilitate dialogue between the countries of the so-called Global South, namely Africa and Latin America.
These countries of Africa and Latin America are also victims of the economic and social consequences of this war, but sometimes they perceive events in a different way than they should. They sometimes think that these are distant European affairs. We have a close relationship with Africa and with Latin America. Portugal can thus help you to get closer to these countries to fight together for the independence of your country, its territorial integrity. And Portugal is doing exactly that.
And this is what Portugal will continue to do. In order to clarify this, I have to say that Ukraine’s borders today are countries of freedom, security and peace for the whole world. Portugal supports Ukraine! (Applause)
Strong friendship between Portugal and Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine! (Applause)