All along my life, the beginning of March has been a source of joy with the start of the Ukrainian spring. Although the cold remains with us for weeks more, the days start to be longer, and Ukrainians start the season preparing the senses to appreciate the scent of the new leaves and flowers to bloom all around.
This day today, in 2023, carries an additional meaning of celebration. This time, we are celebrating much more than simply the explosion of life in nature: we are also celebrating our lives. Our existence. Our survival. Our ability to keep ourselves alive, withstanding the invader's onslaught despite the harsh winter conditions and predicted humanitarian disaster.
This is a spring to remember how our people persevered despite the cold, the darkness and the continuous missile strikes. A perseverance forged and shaped by the love for our nation and by the love for every soldier who didn't return home from this infamous war. In honour to our fallen heroes who won't have the privilege to live another spring in their lives.
We Ukrainians recognize our survival as a victory in itself. We are alive. We won the battle of winter and now we are starting the battle of the spring. Winter made us stronger than ever to face the enemy and we are confident that this will be the battle to end the war.
In March of 1848, demands for democracy and freedom conducted people all over Europe to widespread protests, shaping what is today known as the Springtime of Nations. This year, it's the opportunity for my nation to make a contribution to the global integrity by expelling the Russians and build a new order based, above everything, on mutual respect.
175 years later, we are now living the Springtime of Ukraine.
This will be the season when our sunflowers will blossom all over our country while our courage, our tenacity and our toughness will flourish from Lviv to Luhansk, from Kharkiv to Odesa, from Kherson to to Chernihiv and from the entire Crimean Peninsula to our beautiful capital Kyiv.