Prague, 28 August 2023

Dear Jan,

Esteemed Ambassadors,

It’s an honor to address you today. I am grateful to my dear colleague and friend Jan Lipavsky for the invitation and take it as a sign of respect to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

I am here to say great thank you for everything you have done for us. I thank the Czech government, the Parliament, and President Pavel, as well as Czech diplomacy, and all Czechs.

I am thankful for all the political and military support. For supporting our initiatives at the UN and working together to promote them. For advancing Ukraine’s path to the EU during your very successful Presidency last year. For taking part in the Peace Formula. For providing critical military aid, including tanks, at the moment of our greatest need. For the fact that ordinary Czechs even… crowdfunded a tank for Ukraine. For welcoming our people who were forced to flee the war. Such things can never and will never be forgotten.

Děkuji mnohokrát!

Dear colleagues,

Resilience has become a buzzword. Being resilient means turning weaknesses into strengths. Turning trauma into experience. Turning pain into action.

Resilience means never complaining. Never allowing fatigue to dictate your decisions. Replacing the lack of resources with ingenuity. Defying the odds and finding faith in the thin air.

The goal is to turn a traumatic past into a pragmatic present and ambitious future.

I am sure Ukraine and Czechia have a lot to share and a lot to achieve together on our way to becoming more resilient.

In the past, the Czech people have lived through the horror of an invasion. Not once. And you stood up to it.

Soviet tanks may have crushed the Prague Spring, but they could not crash your will for freedom. You persevered and built a prosperous and free country.

When Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24th, you knew exactly what it was. It is highly symbolic that you gave us, among other assistance, Soviet tanks. The ones we so desperately needed to repel Russian invaders. Soviet tanks in the right hands.

You must feel that we are fighting today not only to have a future but also to settle the bill. The bill for all the damage Russian imperial thinking has inflicted on us, you and other nations throughout history.

You are probably used to me urging you and other partners to speed up defense assistance for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is true that we still require more weapons. For as long as Russia continues its aggression there will never be enough of them. Because this is war. Once we win I will be able to tell each of our partners: friends, thank you, it was enough. Before this, we need more and faster.

Some commentators in Europe and America begin to complain that the burden of weapons supply is too heavy and fuels the war. But imagine what if they succeed and persuade their governments to choose the drop-off policy. Will it end the war? No, it will pave the way for even greater conflict after Russia licks its wounds. Will it save lives? No, it will lead to the suffering and death of even more people.

No one wants peace more than Ukraine. Yet, the answer to today’s situation is not to drop off but to step up. The task of today’s diplomacy is negotiating weapons, not ceasefires. Because the road to a fair and lasting peace lies through victory on the battlefield.

Or there are inflation problems in a number of European countries. The truth is inflation is also part of the war. Putin does everything he can to worsen the economic situation for Europe. He amplifies the already existing trends and seeks to deepen existing problems.

Putin’s calculation is that economic inflation will lead to inflation of support for Ukraine. But if this happens, the only result would be Russia’s victory and further worsening of Europe’s economic problems. This is why the answer is not to drop off, but to step up. Ukraine’s victory will ruin Putin’s plans to hurt Europe economically.

Dear friends,

Regarding defense assistance, there is something new I have to tell. Frankly, we are past the point when we only brought weapons to Ukraine. At this stage we are already focused on producing, maintaining, and repairing weapons together.

Ukraine has already ramped up domestic production of armaments and ammunition by several times. We are fighting the largest and the most technologically advanced war in this century. This means we have also discovered many exclusively Ukrainian know-hows and technologies. Our miltech is booming. What we need now is to couple Ukraine’s ingenuity with the resources of our partners to jointly produce strength for both us and you.

In this context, we will hold a very important event this autumn in Ukraine. The first Defense Industries Forum where Ukrainian and foreign producers will be able to launch joint ventures, enter into alliances, sign contracts, and explore opportunities for growing together. We have already invited hundreds of leading defense companies from dozens of countries. We will wholeheartedly welcome Czech producers there. We also propose you to bring along those foreign companies that you work with.

This is a win-win. Czech companies will be able to expand their operations, increase revenues, and create new jobs. Both Ukrainian and Czech defense industries will get a boost for growth and technological advance.

Together, we will produce and multiply strength that will defend our entire Europe.

Dear friends,

The Soviet Union has stolen many opportunities from entire generations of Ukrainians and Czechs. The Soviet system robbed time of people’s lives.

Your genius Miloš Forman described the absurdity of the Soviet rule so well in his famous “Hori, ma panenko” tragicomedy. We lived through the same thing.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the second most joyful event in the 20th century after the allied victory over Nazism. Absurdistan finally fell apart and the fresh air of freedom gave a new life to all of us.

Surprisingly, we can also use our common past from the Soviet Union and its Socialist Camp to our advantage today. For example, in our relations with African nations.

During my three diplomatic tours to eleven African nations since last October, I realized how strong the sympathy for the Soviet Union still is in Africa. Many African nations remember Soviet and Socialist countries as a force that helped them in their anti-colonial struggle back in the 20th century. The problem is that they extend their sympathetic feelings by inertia to Russia as a successor to the Soviet Union.

They seem to believe that the old West owes them money while they owe gratitude to Russia. In their view, the old West has no moral, historical and political ground to preach to them about the criminal policies of Russia in Ukraine.

In response, I argued that what the Soviet Union did to them fifty-sixty years ago does not justify what Russia does to Ukraine now, treating it as a former colony that tries to shake off the tight grip of Moscow.

I believe there is a great potential in our relations with African states given the fact that neither Ukraine, nor the Czech Republic, nor other nations that were part of the USSR or the Socialist Block have ever been Africa’s colonizers. Yes, we are part of the West right now. But we don’t bear the burden of the colonial past.

I therefore propose to begin coordinating our diplomatic efforts in Africa on a broad scale. Not only the two of us but all of us - Ukraine, Czechia, Slovakia, our Baltic friends, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova. This would be an excellent way to turn our past traumas into current advantages.

We have the full right to tell the true story of how Moscow was helping decolonize Africa while imposing colonial practices on all of us with an iron fist. We have the full right to expose the truth about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. I have shared details of this proposal with Jan and we will take it on from here with other colleagues.

Excellencies,

By turning our weaknesses into strengths, we can beat all the odds and achieve the unthinkable. War diplomacy has taught us four truths: to be ambitious, keep optimistic during any storm, be frank and result-oriented, and never give up.

This is why Ukraine is still fighting and we are confident we will prevail. As Vaclav Havel famously said, “The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle”. Ukraine will never give up on our and your freedom.

We also know there is no alternative to our membership in NATO. The past didn’t allow us to get closer to the EU and NATO who preferred to look at Ukraine through Moscow’s lens. Today, I ask you to work jointly and uncompromisingly ahead of the Washington summit on putting into practical decisions a clear vision: Europe won’t be a safe place until Ukraine is in NATO.

On your path to joining NATO and the EU you had to break many walls of skepticism. You were told that no one waits for you there, and it would take so long, and there are so many obstacles, etc. But you made it! We count on your skills in breaking those walls to help us advance on our path to NATO and EU membership.

Our security is your security. By strengthening us, you strengthen yourselves. This has been true throughout centuries of our common history.

To be honest, if there is a myth of brotherhood of nations in our part of the world, this is surely not the Russian propaganda myth about the brotherly Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. The true foundational legend in Central Europe is the one about Lech, Czech and Rus. Rus stands for Ruthens, one of the old names for Ukrainians.

Learning the lessons of the past is important. But what’s even more important is transforming the pain of the past into the energy of action. The best tribute to all those who perished in the past struggling for our and your freedom is for Ukraine to win this war.

I invite you to work together toward achieving this historic task.

Thank you for your attention and Slava Ukraini.