On the 107th day of the war, 10 June 2022, the Head of the Ukrainian state took part in the work of the second day of the 5th Copenhagen Democracy Summit dedicated to defending Ukraine, countering authoritarian powers in the world and building an alliance of democracies.
The President of Ukraine said in his online address to the participants of the Summit that this year the answer to the question was found, where is the frontline between freedom and oppression, democracy and authoritarianism. The state border of Ukraine has become an actual line of confrontation not only between the power of democratic Europe and Russian tyranny that started the aggression, but also between the ability to simply say something and the willingness to act to reinforce words.
“Democracy is always respect for words. International law is also respect for words. But they work and are able to win in confrontations only when they can be backed up by action. When a word literally means action,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to the Head of the Ukrainian state, on the Ukrainian border, in the Ukrainian Donbas, near Kharkiv, in the south of Ukraine, one can see that the Ukrainian people are really ready to back up the their words about independence with appropriate actions in defence of independence. At the same time, the European democratic system can lose if its words are not backed up by actions, in particular aimed at supporting Ukraine’s movement to the European Union and blocking any relations with Russia which has cynically violated literally all vital documents of international law.
The President of Ukraine identified three important areas where Europe should be effective: “We need to finally remove this gray zone [between the European Union and Russia] which is so tempting for the Russian state… There is a need for effective, legally binding security guarantees in a renewed security architecture for the European continent… All war criminals must always be held accountable”.
Together with the President of Ukraine, the Copenhagen Democracy Summit was attended by the 44th US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, and a number of other well-known and influential personalities.
During the Summit, the Democracy Perception Index was presented, the largest annual study of democracy in the world, covering more than 50,000 respondents, representing more than 75% of the world population. A new poll found that 31 of 52 countries are in favour of cutting economic ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and 46% of the interviewed say that the US, EU and NATO have done too little to assist Ukraine during the Russian invasion. The study showed that the main threats to democracy in the world are now perceived to be economic inequality, corruption and the influence of global corporations, and the greatest challenges to democracy are war, violent conflicts, poverty and hunger.
Photo Credit: The Alliance of Democracies Foundation