presidents-of-ukraine

"Time requires of all of us to act in unity with resolve and to assume the responsibility for the future of the United Nations."

"It is generally acknowledged that the future of the European security architecture as an important element of global security should be based on principles of comprehensiveness, indivisibility and partnership, and, in the long run, on collective rather than unilateral action."

"Mobilizing the efforts of the various strata and sectors of our societies could become a powerful driving force for progress in the fight against the AIDS pandemic."

"Apart from the purely medical consequences of the AIDS pandemic, another concern is the psychological aspect of the problem, manifest in the way society responds to HIV-positive people. We must work together to avoid isolating HIV-infected people from everyday social life. A top priority for us all must be protecting the social and economic rights of individuals and preventing discrimination against them."

"Ukraine has consistently conducted, and is determined to continue, a policy aimed at strengthening security and stability throughout the world."

"Peace and stability are impossible without development, as they cannot exist in societies whose nature provides for violence and disrespect for fundamental human rights. It therefore follows that democracy which is declared but not supported by development is doomed to failure. The inability to ensure the development of a society in all its dimensions inevitably provokes disillusionment in the ideals of democracy and ruins social stability."

"One of the important links between peace and development is the process of arms control and disarmament. The reduction of armaments and armed forces and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, unequivocally promote a decrease in the level of military threat, thus creating favourable external conditions for the existence and development of all members of the international community."

"The best and most reliable weapon of peace is steady economic development. For developing countries and countries with economies in transition, the main factors for success in economic reforms and poverty eradication programmes consist in obtaining free access to world markets, in liberalizing trade and resolving external debt problems."

"Like every people on earth, my compatriots want to live in a democratic country, without fear for their future and the life and destiny of coming generations."

"The future of the world order, of the United Nations and of every country, is our common future. Thus, while deciding today on the fate of the United Nations, we should be aware that we are also determining our own destiny."

"In the past two years, the world has seen how true that is and has come to see this approach as the right one. Let us remember the old truism that prevention is better than cure. This is how we can finally triumph over the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

"Unfortunately, criminals and malefactors have been increasingly enjoying the advantages of the information revolution. I would like to invite you to consider the appropriateness of working out an international instrument to combat computer terrorism."

"With the era of great ideological confrontation behind us, mankind has managed to decrease the threat of self-destruction by nuclear conflagration and to establish sufficiently reliable mechanisms of international security."

"The history of mankind testifies that peace and development, democratization and the humanization of the world community are integral components of the general global process."

"I am convinced that nuclear weapons are useless and unpromising as an instrument of State policy. It is necessary to do everything possible to make sure that in the new millennium mankind gets rid once and for all of the fear of devastating nuclear disaster."

"An old truth asserts that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

"The disappearance of a world divided into antagonistic systems is related to profound internal transformations in post-socialist countries. I am convinced of the need to establish the most favourable regime possible for those countries’ integration into the international community."

"Ukraine has become a democratic State with a policy aimed at ensuring the needs and rights of its citizens, and at establishing a civil society. There is every reason to conclude that during our six years of independence we have laid the foundation of further State-building."

"My pride is for the wisdom and far-sightedness of the founders of the United Nations, who actually laid the foundation of a new world order. Challenging history itself, they attempted to establish peace ableness and mutual assistance as forces to oppose hostility and intolerance, and for the first time this was done successfully. Thus, the peoples of the Earth received a unique instrument for consolidating mankind as a single universal organism in its efforts to survive and build a better world."

"It is time for everyone finally to realize that sustainable development is not only necessary for maintaining the existing security systems at the global, regional and national levels, but is also an objective condition for the existence and development of our entire civilization."

"The United Nations was established by people who realized that nations, peoples and States are interdependent and complementary components of a single entity called humanity. The presence of an unprecedented number of world leaders here today is convincing evidence of their support for the United Nations at this crucial stage of its development. The most important task for the United Nations today is to define itself under these new conditions and to follow the road indicated by the real circumstances of our existence. To do this would constitute a source of strength, longevity and moral health for the United Nations."

"The problem of nuclear weapons proliferation – one of the most pressing problem of our time – causes alarm both among statesmen and world public. This problem focuses attention of Ukraine’s political leadership and this country’s Parliament. The possibility of increase in number of nuclear weapon states and corresponding increase of the risk of unauthorized use of these weapons or of their use in regional conflicts constitute a real threat to international peace and security."

"He was a person always able to find wise words and express them in such a way that they were heard by all Ukrainians. Particularly in times of crisis. When the future of an entire country can depend on the wisdom of one person."

"Renouncing nuclear weapons, which are undoubtedly an effective mean of deterrence against any potential aggressor, Ukraine has undeniable right to demand from the nuclear powers guarantees of its national security."

"The new balance of forces on the political map of the world clearly indicates the need to create a global security system which would be based on entirely new principles. We understand that the complicated processes of international security and peace are intertwined and cannot permit gaps and vacuum to exist in this or that part of the world, especially on the European Continent."

"Ukraine believes that in our time no state, especially no nuclear state, can conduct the dual policy, customary in the recent past, in the field of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons."

"The trip from Kyiv to Jerusalem was short, but the path to Ukrainian independence, which allowed for the visit of a Ukrainian President to Israel, was long and hard. In Israel it is said sometimes "for the first time in a thousand years". This expression also applies to our circumstances. For the first time, an official Ukrainian delegation is visiting Israel. The fates of the two nations share much in common. For many generations the possibility of establishing an independent nation was denied from both of them. Both of them experienced forced assimilation, were scattered in many other nations in the world, suffered troubles in the 20th century, for example the "artificial hunger" of 1933, oppression at the hands of the Stalin regime, World War Two; troubles whose scope allow a comparison with the Jewish Holocaust."

"We want Ukraine to undergo transformation as a state, as a structure that is on the same level as European countries, civilized countries of Western Europe."

"I similarly have the right to defend my own people. And I can say that no one, if they are a member of the United Nations, should act like a bull in a china shop. They must be guided by international principles, instead of engaging in pressure tactics and attempting to live at the expense of others."

"In December 1991, the Ukrainian nation, numbering 52 million people, did not agree to lose its uniqueness. It chose the path of independence. Our nation voted for an independent Ukraine as a free democratic society based on the respect for human rights, freedoms and values. Our nation voted for a country that promised equal rights for all ethnic and national groups and which will allow the free development of their national heritage and religion. Our nation voted for peace, tranquility and stability in our land. That is what we are striving for today, despite many difficulties, chief amongst them a deep and dangerous economic crisis that has hit all of the territories of the former Soviet Union."

"Kravchuk steered Ukraine through difficult years. Europe's second-largest country, with a population of around 52 million, was forced to re-learn everything. It had no experience of being an independent state. Its transition from a planned to a market economy, and from party dictatorship to democracy, was a painful one. Millions of Ukrainians found themselves living in poverty. The shopping cart that came to symbolize the deprivations of the period was nicknamed a "kravchuchka." But Ukraine survived — and Kravchuk should take some of the credit. For all his faults, as president he succeeded in maintaining peace and political stability in the country. This was quite an achievement at a time when most of the other former Soviet republics were riven by civil war."

"Ukraine does not need nuclear arms. It is our misfortune that they are located on our soil. And though we would most heartily wish they were not there, the reality is that they are. We did not put them there, but they are tied to Ukraine, they influence our politics. To get rid of them is not so simple. These are not tanks, which can be cut up without any problems. There is an entire complex here, a living organism that must be stopped. We face three problems: safety, compensation and the environment."

"Ukraine must be reckoned with as a state and not viewed as a part of Russia. One simple thing must be understood: Ukraine will not do as is ordered by others, be this Russia or any other government. It will do what is in the interests of its people, just as any normal country. I would like to find solutions that will accommodate both Ukraine and other countries. I think these exist. They are not so complicated, we require only good will."

"Today’s world is based on great principles: sovereignty, territorial integrity, and untouchable borders. And as far as I understand the situation, the United States is the guardian of these principles. If the nations of the world ever for a second assume that the world powers, and first of all the United States, are going to sacrifice the interest of one nation for other interests, it’s going to be the end of the world order."

"I am convinced that we all need to recognize the importance of the changes that humanity is encountering on the edge of the 21st century. We need to insert corrections in our policies. Perhaps it is appropriate to remember the active positive role of the UN in the '60s on the matter of freeing nations from colonialism. The time has come to pay special attention to the building of a global security system in the context of the UN that will allow for assistance to young countries to protect them from aggression on the part of those who will not forfeit their colonial ambitions."

"Ukraine does not only promise equal rights to all nations within it, but it also promises its protection to the preservation of ethnicities, cultures, languages and religions and for allowing good conditions for their free development. Every ethnic group in Ukraine lives according to its own internal laws, its tradition and leaders and every one of them will not be restricted to borders of a national minority, but all of them will unite to one political organization with the name –the Ukrainian nation. This increases our strength and will help us to continue the social processes."

"The entire experience of creating new international ties after the collapse of totalitarianism and the end of the long cold war period shows that the major issue now is to establish effective cooperation in the interests of universal, peaceful future, and to ensure such international conditions which would allow to find an optimal compromise of state, national, and general human interests."

"I may say without exaggeration that this is a revolutionary approach; it is very painful, because this system of permission was the underpinning of the great bureaucratic system on all levels. And that democratic system, a corrupt one, it has been built for years and decades."

"I am against the idea when we, so to say, throw someone behind the bars, which is the place where they would hide and flee from responsibility. We will surely find them, but they first have to return public money."

"It is important for me to feel that the barometer, which the business is, helps me understand whether the winds blow the right way or not."

"Serious steps to implement reforms have been undertaken, the land reform, the retirement reform, and those of healthcare, education and urban management have been started; the conditions for the development of businesses are being distorted, fight against corruption is underway... Note. "Спотворювати" means "distort", he meant "створювати" (create)."

"By 1914, the tax will be lowered to 16%, just like we have already agreed."

"Speaking of Alcântara Space Center...that's why all of the space programs that we have, which is, among others, the construction of the space centre in Brazil... eh, in the space centre in Balkantaura"

"Our sacred duty is to overcome the shadows of the past, make new tragedies possible. Any encroachments on the peaceful future of Ukraine will meet with instant and resolute response..."

"This slogAn - tun on... tun... tun on Ukraine for you - is the slogAn of our country's promo-campaign to Euro 2012. In order to tun Ukraine on, I would like to say that it is enough to see it with your own eyes at the time when in Kyiv, chestnuts will blossom. And when warm weather comes around, and in Ukrainian cities, women will start to undress. It is a wonder to see this beauty. (Yanukovych struggled to read the word "увімкнути", omitting the "м" all the time)"

"The twentieth anniversary of our independence is only an instant in historical terms, yet the roots of our statehood can be traced back thousands of years. Since ancient times, Ukraine has been developing a European spirit and culture, while cherishing the traditions of tolerance and inter-ethnic and intercultural harmony in our society. We believe that straightforward and frank dialogue based on universal values is the only way to find a common language in each country and in international relations alike. "Speech at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly" (21 September 2011)"

"...the Unification Act between Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian People's Republic..."

"(In Balaklia, Kharkiv Region) I hope that you, representatives of rural district, who have come here to Balaklava..."

"I have said some time ago that we are against the policy of double standards. I was speaking of Serbia... Or rather, the recognition of the independence of Montenegro, indepen... erm, Kosovo, the recognition of the independence of Kosovo. [...] By then it was already apparent that the conflicts on the territories with frozen conflicts will only become more acute. I can point to another prominent example, that of North Ossetia. (In these cases, Yanukovych meant Kosovo and South Ossetia, respectively)"

"We've made a deal with Dmitry Anatolievich, we won't be talking about bad things, we'd rather do them instead."