President Volodymyr Zelenskyy:

Thank you so much. Ceann Comhairle, Cathaoirleach, Deputies and Senators, dear friends and dear Ireland, thank you for your attention to Ukraine and for the fact that Ireland has truly stood the test of time. Thank you for providing a home and protection to our people when they needed it most once the war broke out back home.

While in some societies, the fatigue from news about the war is growing, we do not feel that your voice, the voice of Ireland, is turning quieter. Thank you.

Our peoples, Ukrainian and Irish, are among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves. And now, for nearly four years of Russia's full-scale war against our people, our children, the most devastating war for freedom in Europe since the Second World War, Ireland has stood firmly and clearly for our independence and for a just end to this war. Thank you for your steadfast support, for these years of standing with us. Thank you for not losing faith in us, just as we do not lose faith that the day will come when we will welcome all our friends to Ukraine in peace and when we will welcome home all our people who were forced to flee back to a peaceful Ukraine, back home, and we are working to make it real.

This morning here in Ireland, our team delivered a full briefing following the meetings in the United States. We are fully engaged in negotiations and we are only stepping up our efforts. Our team is now looking ahead to the next very important meetings. Today Ukraine is closer to peace than ever before and there is a real chance, but we must seize this chance fully, the whole world, not just one or another powerful country. Ukraine wants peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, one strong country can start a war; another strong country can help to stop the war. But to restore justice and defend what is right, we need a community, a world, made up of many different nations. It is the community of nations that decides, united by shared sentiments, shared aspirations, a shared desire for justice. It is a community of nations that makes peace truly lasting. Geographically large or small, politically influential or playing a different role, economically powerful or not, when these different voices stand together on the side of justice, on the side of free people, there is only one possible outcome: peace and justice must prevail. When you have a true community of nations on your side, you cannot be crushed and your rights can be restored.

No one can break the world alone, not even Russia, not even with its few buddies. No one can lie to the entire world forever, not even Putin. No one can stand against everyone else, and that is the truth.

It is also true that one can inspire everyone else, and that is why Ukraine is fighting for every voice in the world, for every community in every region. We are trying to reach every heart, to answer every doubt, to counter every accusation with facts, and we are searching for and finding friends wherever we can. We have managed to unite the majority of the world, and that unity has become our main weapon in protecting life. We have kept the world's attention, and that gives us time to resist Russia's attempts to destroy us. We are involving everyone we can in diplomatic efforts, and that is the best path forward.

It is a great honour for me to stand here today, in a country that understands the price of freedom better than many in Europe, better than many in the world, and that shares our belief that every voice counts, every nation matters.

Ireland is doing so much to help others understand why it is important to stand together and to remain a community based on shared values. Thank you for that. We will continue to co-ordinate with you and with everyone who can help and to inform all those who can influence the outcome, so that one day we can achieve what many still believe to be impossible, not just silence instead of bombs, not just clear skies instead of Russia's drones and missiles, and not just a pause between strikes but lasting peace, guaranteed security and true justice.

Human memory is often short and attention can be fleeting, so please remind the world every time it is needed that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a criminal and unprovoked act of aggression, which cries out for justice. It happened for one reason only, because Russia wants to treat Ukraine as its property and Ukrainians as if they belong in its backyard like livestock. No politician in Europe or somewhere else should forget everything we have achieved together through our defence.

I urge you to oppose any decision that weakens pressure on Russia for this war as long as war and occupation and the propaganda of hatred continue. All the pressure on Russia must remain in place, so that Russia does not believe it will be rewarded for this war with stolen Ukrainian land or thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children. Please continue to support all efforts to make the tribunal for Russia's aggression a reality, so that one day it truly begins its work and so that Russian killers cannot freely travel the world as if they have done nothing wrong.

We must protect the unity that has existed since 2022 - a unity of different nations united in the protection of life and justice. We are speaking about the future. There is no good future for Europe without this unity. Ukraine wants to stand together with those whose history, values and struggle reflects our own. We want to stand alongside Ireland in the European Union as equals, and I am confident that this will happen. Europe cannot run away from its own values. It must stand up for them, and Ukraine is doing exactly that today on Europe's behalf.

Ladies and gentleman, dear dear Ireland, please remember your voice matters, from Ireland's vote at the United Nations to the words in your media, from your thoughts here in Dublin to every home in the global Irish community around the world. That is millions of people who can influence hundreds of millions more. When the most powerful apply pressure the global community helps to guide that pressure in the right direction. Just as there is no capital in the world unaware of what St. Patrick's Day is, there should be no capital that does not know that the Irish together with the Ukrainians and many other nations are united for real peace - a peace without humiliation and based on something truly real, on shared values.

Those values are not business as usual, not appeasement of killers, not turning a blind eye to what has happened. Among those values is this: the aggressor must be held accountable for what was done. Please take an active role in making the tribunal for this aggression a reality, not just joining but pushing, working, insisting that justice might begin with accountability. Please continue to advocate for every form of sanctions against Russia. It is time for Russian assets to serve the cause of peace, to help defend and rebuild Ukraine. This long overdue decision must be implemented.

Please, call on everyone in the world to help return all the children abducted by Russia and all the prisoners still held in Russian jails and camps, many of whom have been there not just since 2022, but since 2014 when Russia launched its hybrid war against us and occupied our Crimea. This has gone on far too long to simply close our eyes and turn the page on Russia. Without a just peace hatred will not fade; it will continue to smoulder and provoke new and new violence.

History has seen this before. This time it must be different. We need real peace. Help us achieve it and never lose your faith in Ukraine.

Thank you, thank you, Ireland. Glory to Ukraine.

See this speech in context