 Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to welcome to this opening session Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. Tomorrow marks three months when, on the 24th of February, Russia began an unprovoked and unnecessary war against Ukraine, an act which has cost thousands of lives and has cost six million Ukrainians to seek refuge abroad and displaced over 8 million people within the country. Every country has the right to live in peace, determine its own means of governance, and choose the strategic alliances it wants to have. Every country's territorial integrity and sovereignty must be respected. These are the main principles, as the president of Switzerland has shown us, of international law and the post-war war to World War II order. Mr. President, now on the first official day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting 2022, we convene in Davos at the most consequential geopolitical and geo-economic moment in the past decades. Mr. President, we have all seen the leadership, your courageous leadership, we are eager to hear from you on what lies ahead for your country and its people, your vision for peace in Europe and the international global order, and how we can assist you. Because everybody of us is affected by what's happening in your country. Mr. President, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you. It's a great honor for me, Mr. Chairman, Professor Schwab, President Cassis, ladies and gentlemen. I'm grateful for the opportunity to take part in the discussions at the forum. The main theme for this year's Davos is history at a turning point, government policies and business strategies. This year, the word's turning point appears to become more than just a rhetoric figure of speech. This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world. If so, the force is not interested in our thoughts, and there is no need for further meetings in Davos. There would be no reason for that. Brute force seeks nothing about the subjection of those it seeks to subdue, and it does not discuss, but kills at once. With Russia does that in Ukraine just as we speak today. By the way, look at the building of the former Russian house in Davos. It has been turned into a house of Russian war crimes, and this is an example of their transformation that what Russia has done to itself by becoming a state of war criminals and what it brings to the world, it inspires other potential aggressors to act. Instead of successful peaceful cities, there's only black rooms. Instead of normal trade, sea full of mines and block ports in Ukraine, instead of tourism, closed skies and saldents of Russian bombs and cruise missiles. This is what the world would like if that turning moment would not have a proper response from the humanity. It would resemble a large set of war crimes, so history remembers many moments when everything changed dramatically. For example, how several shots fired could kill millions of people if those shots were fired on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. History remembers how much grief one person can do if it can see, it can understand that it's not being properly resisted, as it was, for example, in 1938 in Munich. Some historical twists and turns were noticeable, some not, but we always had to respond to them, trying to prepare for other historical upheavals, so as to mitigate the possible consequences or trying to heal the wounds out of catastrophes that followed one or another historical twist. And now we have a large collection of such responses, there's UN Charter with all these agencies, the OECE, the IAEA, the WTO and many other institutions, but are there enough of them to respond to what we have faced today, but is it possible now to try to adapt those institutions for modern challenges, definitely not, we need to change the approach not to respond but to act preventively, and not only to adapt to new realities what we have, but to create new tools, new precedents. Look at what Ukraine has already done, we have established a historical precedent for courage. We didn't listen to those who said that our defense would not hold longer than just a couple of days, we have stopped the Russian Army, which was called the second largest in the world, at the coast of heavy fighting and the coast of saldons of lives we gradually pushing the occupiers out of our territories, but would we have to do that if we were hard last year and a full range of sanctions would be applied against Russia, preventively, they could knock down any aggressor. I'm sure the answer is no. Preventing war could be guaranteed, the sanctions of the world would be preventive and not just imposed as the response. Ukraine has set another precedent in the three months, a precedent for the unsingunity of the democratic world around the emotions of genuine admiration for Ukrainian courage and around the understanding that you would need to fight for the freedom, and now hundreds of millions of citizens in democratic countries are putting pressure on governments and companies to make sure they would limit or restrain their relations with the aggressor state with Russia, and instead to help the people who was under attack. But this is happening only now, even though Russia started its war against Ukraine back in 2014, we are grateful for this support. But if that happened back then, immediately that unity, that pressure on governments and companies for the stake of the fight for the freedom, would Russia start this full scale war, would it bring all these losses upon Ukraine and upon the world? I'm sure that the answer to this question is also no. Now we see that the world listens and believes Ukraine, but there is also a certain expectations of the world as to how the situation will be resolved, what tools will work, what new can we create to prevent such aggressions in the future, and how do we stop the brute force that has challenged everything that we all cherish and value? That's what the turning point means, ladies and gentlemen. Don't expect for the fatal short spank for it, don't expect for Russia using their special weapons, either chemical, biological, and even more so, nuclear, do not give the aggressor the impression that the world would not be seized enough, protect the freedom and regular peaceful order in the world with the maximum efforts possible, this what the sanction should be, there should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor who wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences for their actions, and I believe there are still no such sanctions against Russia, and there should be, there should be Russian oil embargo, all the Russian banks should be blocked, no exceptions, there should be an abandonment of the Russian IT sector, there should not be any trade with Russia, this should be a precedent for sanctions pressure that will work convincingly for the decades to come, and would support the peace, it is necessary to set a precedent for the complete withdrawal of foreign businesses from Russian market, so that your brands would not be associated with war crimes, so that your offices, bills and goods were not used by the war criminals in their bloody entries, values must matter, particularly when a full scale war begins and the global markets are becoming destabilized, because someone, someone there is simply neglecting the values, in that case, everyone suffers losses, we offer every company that leaves the Russian market to continue operating in Ukraine, you will have access not only to our market of 40 million consumers, but also to the common market of Europe, and your brands, your positions, they will only increase because you would truly support the protection of freedom, our representatives here in Donbass can inform all of you on the details of the prospects that Ukraine opens for your businesses, ladies and gentlemen, we offer the world to set a precedent for rebuilding the country after the war, which will show everyone who dreams of destroying the life of a neighbor, that the war is not working, I invite you to take part in this rebuilding, the amount of work is enormous, we have more than half a trillion dollars in losses, tens of thousands of facilities were destroyed, we need to rebuild entire cities and industries, and we offer a special, historically significant model of rebuilding when each of the partner countries or partner cities, or even partner companies will have the opportunity to take patronage over a particular region of Ukraine, it could be a city or community or even an industry, Britain, Denmark, the European Union and other leading international entities have already chosen a specific area for patronage in rebuilding, and thanks to these model of relations, the post-war rebuilding could be fast, could be efficient and could be of quite quality, and this would not only allow to attract the best specialists, architects, engineers, builders, developers, managers and others, but it will also be the largest in Europe since the World War II, it will become the largest opportunity for an economic way forward, and I hope that at the beginning of the international conference in Lugano, that was mentioned by the President Cassis, it will be held in July this year, dedicated to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, all of our partner countries and most of the leading companies of the world will come up with their own packages of proposals, and taking this opportunity, I would like to extend the words of gratitude to Switzerland for organizing this conference and supporting our efforts, I would like to know the efforts of Ursula von der Leyen, particularly her proposal to establish a platform for rebuilding and reconstruction that would be managed jointly by the European Commission in Ukraine and will allow to direct the European Union resources to restore it in normal life in our country, but the list of the new precedents that we need would not be complete without a few more decisions, there has to be a precedent for punishing the aggressor, and for the investments in the peaceful life, the Russian assets, which are scattered and different jurisdictions must be found, there has to be seized or frozen, and then they should be allocated to a special fund that would be used to help all those affected by the war, of course this is not easy, but after that there will be definitely no motivation of every aggressor to do what Russia has done and what it continues to do, if the aggressor loses everything then it definitely deprives him of any motivation to start the war, let's move on, any response to the mass famine is too late by its definition the famine should be stopped only preventively, when it's not yet started, but now the world simply has no tool like that and we propose to establish the organization for responsible and democratic states, exporters of food products who can act with respect for human rights and global trade roles, the motivation for us is very simple, whatever the turning points they are in history, the humanity should have a tool to protect itself against the hunger and Ukraine is ready to provide a platform for the activities of this new organization which is definitely an important one and one more aspect, this war of Russia against Ukraine convinces everyone that support to the country under attack is the more valuable the sooner it is provided weapons, funding, political support and sanctions against Russia if we would have received them by 100% of our needs at once back in February the result would be tens of thousands of lives saved, this is why Ukraine needs all the weapons that we ask not just the ones that we've been provided, that is why Ukraine needs funding that's at least 5 billion USD per month and all the funds that we need for rebuilding our country this is why we have established a fund for rebuilding Ukraine called United 24 and we call upon everyone to join this platform for each and every donor where we'll have a specific proposal how to help and where to allocate those funds where are those priorities the targeted nature of our work is the absolute priority and then under these brands United 24 we propose to establish a global structure that can within 24 hours can provide sufficient support to any country that has suffered or faced a military attack, a natural disaster or a pandemic so we offer new format for security guarantees based on what we have faced what we have went through and there must be something that sets a precedent for a timely assistance to everyone who needs it to save lives, to save social stability all the necessary elements for a normal economy for example something like a 911 service there has to be similar service that is called United 24 which would guarantee the security on a global scale Ladies and gentlemen a man whose name is still well remembered George Marshall said the following back in 1947 he said our policy is not against a country or a doctrine but against hunger, poverty, despair and chaos its goal is to revive a functioning economy in the world to allow the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist these words are relevant even today my proposals are all the same they are designed to counter the hunger, poverty, despair and chaos and of course the war which is unleashed by the Russia and which brings nothing else but hunger, poverty, despair and chaos to many in the world not only to pass to Ukraine because guarantee peace and stability and security requires all of us acting quickly and preventively we should not be afraid to set new precedents and this is what the world should learn at various turning points to which it paid a high price this was the price for the fact that the world would only respond but not to act preventively so now we can do it differently finally in the correct way thank you for your attention glory to Ukraine thank you so much thank you president Zelensky you have shown us the magnitude and the complexity of the issue and what is actually at stake mr president if i may have still two questions the first one is the following what is your dream how do you see Ukraine in the future what is your wish for Ukraine in the future thank you for this question complex yet simple one a philosophical one and very specific one just to be frank i am myself being the president of a state at war we are already thinking what is the Ukraine of today because every morning starts for me with getting the number of people who were killed in the past 24 hours unfortunately according to the statistics we've got 87 dead bodies 87 victims today in Gysna the air by Chernihiv just today so the future of Ukraine will be there but without them i wouldn't i would take going to emotions deeply at this point but i can tell you that our country is losing a lot today every day but it makes us stronger we have to pay dearly for the freedom we wage this people's fight for the nation for its future and definitely the victory is awaiting us ahead i'm sure we will be a victoria state with unified people unified by this victory i'm really glad that we've resulted to be that strong and i mean the civilians the military we will be a strong nation with specific security priorities as we don't understand that with a neighbor like this anything can happen anytime and the war may repeat itself we have to make it in a way we have to create such conditions that people or businesses would not be afraid to exist in this country to thrive in this country just take an example of israel speaking just of territory this is a smaller state this is not about historical important just geographically Ukraine is a bit bigger than that in europe and the task of defending our land is more complex and the task is to create the most up-to-date defense system to create the most modern multimodal defense and security system to enter into cooperation with cooperative defense agreements with the countries we respect and we have trust in and hopefully these documents will be approved by the parliaments of our partner nations to see that any chance for the aggressor to try enter our country in the future will be short lived again the future of this country is about people and businesses about development of digitalization we are not going to dwell into corrupt deeds or oligarchic institutions nothing in that will remain in Ukraine actually there is nothing like this already in Ukraine and I think this modern this safe nation this nation which is appealing to them to the rest of the world this is my dream of Ukraine thank you mr president your your country is playing a substantial role in feeding the world if i may say so and your exports at the moment of food products are interrupted how can we help to restore Ukraine as a major to fulfill its function to be a major contributor in order to avoid a food crisis which would be so dangerous for all of us in the world and so painful what can we do and what can you do what can we do for you you know lots of steps it might entail best if these are in and around the country which is happening at the moment to the larger extent the priority matter is to duplicate our seaports you know of our seaports being uh blockaded the whole of the as of sea most of the black sea this has been done by the russian federation and you probably know that they are stealing our grain on a daily basis the russian military are doing this smuggling them by ships to other countries and we need to react promptly on that our minister of external affairs is actively working with the peers and services in other countries and actually it's a tricky question itself how you as a country can buy grains that you know for sure have been smuggled by russians from Ukraine so we work in this direction along diplomatic channels and other countries have been assisting us on that because we won't be able to fight these russian federation's actions all alone another point is how to duplicate our ports seaports the european union is engaged i've talked to boris johnson to andrey dudar from poland to turkey to switzerland we talked to the united nations asking for substantial real steps towards establishing a corridor which would allow experts of our wheat sunflower and other grains because otherwise there will be a deficit and you know it will happen everywhere in asia in africa everywhere and this will be like you know a continuation of the energy crisis there launched the previous year and with locating our ports they're doing just the same in the food realm so we need to agree on a corridor and russia will not be able to stand against the leading countries of the world we are able to expert about 10 million tons from these ports which will mean there will be no hunger in countries there are options of doing it by railway but we have many leaders of our neighboring countries our friendly countries we are talking to them like the Baltic states their representatives are here today so we are talking how to use their facilities their seaports on the Baltic to do it so there is no single one-size-fits-all solution for that again there can be no simple solution with a neighbor like russia federation well there are also military solutions how to duplicate our country our land our waters and we are going to do it parallel to other efforts again we need assistance from around the world for that let us not forget the war is going on you may not perceive it as being quite distance some thousand kilometers from you but this is still an imminent immediate aggression and it can speed up if ukraine failure fails the blockade of seaports is one of the steps they ruined our well refinery industry now we have problems the imports of fuel petrol diesel so so many challenges we have to face and i ask everyone to assist ukraine financially and not just in terms of financing i've explained already today that we need to deal with multiple issues and challenges like food deficits in the world in europe and we have to deal with russia but parallel to that our national economy has to remain operative and financial assistance and we are deeply grateful to international particularly financial institutions for their assistance like the imf i'd like to particularly personally thank cristallina georgia for for understanding we i would like to thank the united states of america for the support some of the recent packages have been recently signed by president biden so we welcome it but we want everything to come as fast as possible because much depends on the speed mr president you have shown the situation in your country and how much we all our future depends on bringing a solution to the terrible fight you are engaged in against your will now you have here mr president in the hall um 1000 more than 1000 leaders from politics and business if you had a personal wish to each of those leaders and if you would address individually each of those leaders what would be your message to conclude our session today what would be your message to each of some leaders here your personal message to each one or a thousand of them i'm not sure i would have enough time i'm really short on time so i would rather say that you know ukraine is short on time now i'm pretty much sure that no one has any idea how much time does europe or the world has and because of that i wouldn't speak personally to anyone specific particularly because i think the world has to be united united by this threats by this war only by the russian federation the world is united already now and i am thankful to the world for this i would only wish you not to lose this feel of unity this creates this punch that the management of the russian federation fears the most and well i do understand and know that each of you leaders have your own range of priorities and issues and each of you has a country to look after and think about but i'm also thinking that we risk losing those values the ones that we are fighting not to lose in ukraine i would wish that every one of you wakes up in the morning with this feeling in the head like what have i done for ukraine today thank you mr mr president i can conclude this session by thanking you by also by saying we are all united with you thank you thank you so much have a nice day