Dear party fellows!
Dear guests!
Our congress takes place at a critical time for the country. Ukraine is going around in a circle of poverty and backwardness. In fact, it stands above the abyss. The current authorities are not able to answer the most urgent questions of citizens. On the one hand, people are concerned about the further development of the country, and on the other – their own everyday welfare and security. Ukraine is being torn apart by war and corruption. The guilty of the death of the patriots on Maidan are walking free, and the ATO veterans are going with a begging bowl in the officials’ offices searching for truth. Brainy people and gifted hands are looking for a better fate abroad. Education, medicine and pension system are driven in a deadlock with half-way reforms. Instead of a clear plan for the development of the country, the authorities continue to palm off people with promises, and line their pockets, having rest in the Maldives and trading with hostile Russia.
Other participants in the political process offer simple recipes such as “take away and share”. However, they will not bring relief. After all, in fine words there is no vision how to put it into practice. As a result, society’s frustration and disappointment with the politicians will only increase. Therefore, I am convinced that Ukraine can be saved not only with the change of people in power. Our country and its citizens will have a future if people in power are patriotic and offer an honest and effective plan for the revival of Ukraine.
The “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” has united such people. Our ideas and actions are supported by the communities. This is proved by the local elections in the UTC, in which UKROP has been steadily gaining leadership positions. During the elections on 29th October last year, we won 4th place, having received nine and a half percent of votes. Only in this election, we have got seats in the local councils for about 300 of our candidates in 21 regions. Our party became the first in terms of the number of mandates received in Volyn and Dnipropetrovsk regions. We are among the leaders in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Poltava regions. In general, UKROP has more than 2000 deputies of local councils throughout the country. According to the Committee of Voters, the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” is among the dozen of parties with the largest factions in the regional councils. Our deputies in the regions together with the representatives of UKROP in parliament defend the interests of the communities. UKROP is flourishing all over Ukraine thanks to all of you!
But I am sure that our greatest achievements are still ahead! We should develop, work and always be ready to realize our vision of the country’s development. Therefore, we go to power and run in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
What do we offer to Ukraine? First and foremost – we offer the truth and real changes.
The truth is that in the east of Ukraine there is an ongoing war, not an anti-terrorist operation or some ‘actions’, as the authorities say. And we should win this war. Even if we invite peacekeepers to Donbas, this can be possible on the conditions of Ukraine.
The truth is that the authorities should cut off diplomatic and economic relations, this shameful trade with Russia and stop the harmful activity of Rossotrudnichestvo in the territory of Ukraine! And we demand them to do this already today.
The truth is that the Crimea needs to be liberated from occupation, and we should not just do everything to forget about the annexation.
The truth is that the Ukrainian army should be modernized according to NATO standards, both in technical and human dimensions. Instead, we have got a failed defense reform. This is observed even by our foreign partners who are frankly speaking about corruption in the field of public procurement, including arms.
The truth is that we should learn how to earn, and not to borrow. The whims of power are too expensive to ordinary Ukrainians. Today, every working Ukrainian is liable for 127 thousand hryvnias to international lenders and the total state debt of Ukraine has reached the level of over 2 trillion hryvnias.
The truth is that it’s time to teach people to earn and earn with their own efforts! Investing in people, economic independence and independence of every citizen – this is the basis of our people’s well-being and economic independence of Ukraine.
The truth is that President Poroshenko is shamefully and criminally hiding behind the difficulties of war and avoiding fulfilling his duty to protect Ukraine. Instead, he continues to usurp power. The last example – the head of state has got the right to use the Armed Forces and other military formations without permission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine!
It is necessary to put an end to it! The authorities should be under control of the society.
Dear friends!
Today it is really an important day. A day that can start unification of the post-Maidan opposition.
Today, the respected delegates of the Congress will make the necessary decisions so that UKROP could choose its candidate for president through internal party elections. Our party is the first among political forces in Ukraine to hold presidential primaries. We will openly and democratically select the most worthy candidate for the position of the head of state. We have to elect a new, people’s president.
I hope that our primaries will also become one of the mechanisms for a serious dialogue on Ukraine’s future. I invite those political forces that want to become our partners in the future transformation of the country to join it.
We should elect a new, people’s president.
At one time, Czech President Vaclav Havel said he wanted to be a president who worked harder than spoke and wanted to be among his citizens and listen to them. Unfortunately, our authorities today do not listen to their own people.
We need to unite and put first the ideas, rejecting the distribution of quotas and cabinet appointments! Today our country first of all needs a force that can create and bring to people a realistic program for the revival and wealth increase of the Ukrainians and Ukraine. We should not define who is better. As Winston Churchill said, if we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
We must return to the Ukrainians the faith in themselves and their state, in our own future on our land. We should stop the one hundred thousand of our compatriots who are leaving Ukraine every month. The major task is to return at least partly the millions of compatriots who have already found better conditions abroad. We need to carry out such reforms, so that the entrepreneurs once again believe in themselves, and the poor people stop feeling as beggars. And I believe that the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” is a force that has got the potential not only to come to power, but also to become an engine of quality changes and revival of Ukraine.
Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, I will say: we should take up our duties, work, overcome the war, and fight for freedom so that even after a thousand years of existence of the Ukrainian state, the next generations of Ukrainians would say about us present here: “It was their star time!”
Let’s go ahead to the victory, friends!
Glory to Ukraine!
