President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko addressed the European leaders during the opening ceremony of the annual summit of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv on Thursday.
The President spoke about the international security, Russian occupation of a part of Ukrainian territories, reforms. 112.international offers the most striking quotes by Poroshenko.
- Until recently many of those present here today could hardly imagine how the world may look like: large-scale Russian military exercises, ongoing Russian aggression in Donbas, waves of refugees, populism spring and ultra-nationalism.
- Democratic world loses control over its values. Russia is trying to get into the head of Western civilization. "Zone of influence" concept is back again. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow to the West to support of national egoism, fatigue with integration, hatred and intolerance.
- Russia will have a chance to build an alternative to Europe - a Europe built on egoism, populism and cynicism. A completely new Europe may emerge with elections in key European capitals.
- The next few months will become a moment of truth for the West. We have to prepare ourselves for new realities.
- One can't a president of a country at war without being an optimist. Otherwise you can't win the war.
- I want European leaders to work out for protecting Europe. Not Ukraine, but our common Europe.
- We are fighting against Russian aggression for two and a half years. Its name is very simple: it's not "a Civil War", it's not "a conflict in Ukraine", it is an aggression against a sovereign state. We should use only this word.
