“Europe will be Europe as long as we take care of it”

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BRUSSELS, 9 Feb. () –

The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has claimed this Thursday in front of the plenary session of the European Parliament Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, insisting that ‘de facto’ the fight of Ukrainian troops against the Russian Army is an example of the defense of the European model: “Europe will be Europe as long as we take care of it”.

In an extraordinary session called by the presence of Zelenski in Brussels, the Ukrainian leader has defended before the parliamentarians the steps taken by Kiev in the European reforms, advances that he undertakes at the same time that he is waging a war against Russia. “We are not going to take a step back. We are not going to waste time, we are changing and Europe will always be Europe as long as we take care of it and the European way of life”, he declared.

Zelensky has framed the fight of the Ukrainian forces in the defense of Europe itself, insisting that the Russian aggression is not limited only to Ukraine but affects all the values ​​that the EU stands for. Ukrainian troops are fighting Moscow’s “anti-European” forces, stressed the Ukrainian president, who has denounced that the Russian regime wants Europe to return to the “inhuman reality” of the 1930s and 1940s.

“But Europe must say no. We Ukrainians on the battlefield defend Europe from the most anti-European forces,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s eventual entry into the bloc as “the way home” for Ukrainians to share the “common European history”.

The MEPs have received him with a standing ovation but in a chamber in which, despite the expectation, there were empty seats. Zelenski, visibly moved, especially when Metsola highlighted in his speech that Ukraine’s future lies in the European Union and that he also received the loudest applause among the attendees.

“Our response must be proportional to the threat, and the threat is existential,” Metsola said in a speech that was applauded by MEPs and Zelenski, while the president of the European Parliament proclaimed that “Ukraine is Europe and the future of its nation is in the European Union.

The chamber, which was dotted with posters reading the motto ‘We stand with Ukraine’ (We are with Ukraine), has given a standing ovation on several occasions to Metsola’s speeches and, above all, to Zelenski’s, who has started his intervention with the statement ‘Slava Ukraini’ (Glory to Ukraine), to which the MEPs have responded as usual to this greeting: ‘Heroyam Slava’ (Glory to the heroes).

The finishing touch to the visit to the European Parliament has been the photo holding, together with Metsola, a European flag that she has given him before closing the day listening, as on his arrival, to the Ukrainian anthem, followed by the ‘Hymn of joy ‘european.