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In a khaki military T-shirt, Volodymyr Zelensky appeared by videoconference in front of the deputies and senators, who had met simultaneously at 3 p.m. on Wednesday to hear his message live. “For the first time in our history, our hemicycle will listen to the president of a country at war”, underlined the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, before Richard Ferrand, his counterpart in the National Assembly, saluted “the courage of the Ukrainian people and that of the Ukrainian authorities”.
“You know who is guilty”
“I would like to ask a question: how to settle this war? How to end this conflict? The answers are in your hands, in our hands,” began the Ukrainian head of state. Volodymyr Zelensky then asked parliamentarians for a minute’s silence, in memory of the Ukrainian victims, after mentioning the bombing of the Mariupol maternity ward. “You know who is guilty,” he said.
He denounced the war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, which does not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, “burns everything” in the country and brings “terror”. “You have all the information concerning the women raped by the Russian soldiers (…), the refugees whom they kill on the roads, the journalists whom they kill, knowing that they are journalists”, he listed.
“Against Liberty, Against Equality, Against Fraternity”
Ukraine’s president invoked memories of World War I: Mariupol, where some 100,000 civilians are still stuck, “reminiscent of the ruins of Verdun”, he said. This war is a war “against freedom, against equality, against fraternity and against everything that the European Union stands for”, asserted Volodymyr Zelensky. “We expect your leadership to do everything to ensure that Ukraine recovers its territorial integrity. (…) You can help us, we need it. »
Zelensky thus referred to the economic pressure inflicted on Russia, calling for more to be done. “French companies must leave Russian soil. Renault, Leroy Merlin and Auchan must stop sponsoring the Russian war machine. French companies must stop financing the murder of women’s children, rapes. And Zelensky insists: “Everyone must remember that values are worth more than profits. »