Dear Ukrainian friends,
77 years ago, the world celebrated the end of the Second World War.
Millions of Ukrainians were among those who sacrificed their lives
to ensure the victory over Nazism.
Since then, we have listened to the sentence for 77 years: Never again.
It was untrue.
Ukrainians know this best today
It was untrue because we overlooked the fundamental doctrine of history.
In 1945, only one evil was defeated.
National socialism or Nazism.
The second evil, international socialism or communism,
celebrated in conflict with the first.
However, evil, because it confronts another evil, does not become good.
This second evil occupied Eastern and Central Europe and the Baltics.
Enlarging gulags and force labor camps.
Killing millions of innocent people at home and abroad.
Even the victory of the West in the Cold War
did not eliminate this evil.
Nazi Germany experienced denazification after the defeat.
Communist Russia experienced merely the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
There was no lustration in Russia. No decommunisation. No justice.
Not enough interest in the West, either.
Evil has survived.
Today, the KGB network controls the Russian state.
It has nuclear weapons and the future is unclear.
There is another dominant communist world nuclear power there
and the Cold war 2 won’t be the same as the first.
The blindness in the West is still great,
but the fog is rising because of your courage and sacrifice.
Dear Ukrainian friends,
we admire your incredible courage in the face of this evil.
By defending your beloved Ukraine, you fight as well for a Europe. Again.
You are on the right side of history.
Thus it is you, Ukrainians,
who are the true, rightful heirs of that honourable fight 77 years ago.
In Moscow, there are the heirs of the Molotov - Ribentrop pact.
Let me reaffirm our solidarity with you and my full support
for immediately granting Ukraine a clear perspective
for rapid integration into the EU.
Slava Ukraïni!