Research
Advise
Convene
Membership

Weight of words

Historic speeches

A curated archive of speeches that shaped the posture of states, the fate of alliances, and the international order.

Speech is an instrument of state. Monarchs, presidents, revolutionaries, and secretaries-general have used the set-piece address to declare war and to sue for peace, to bind allies and to unsettle them, to claim legitimacy and to deny it to others. This is a curated archive of such speeches, from Elizabeth I at Tilbury to the present day, chosen for their bearing on the posture of states, the shape of alliances, and the international order.

Each is presented from the record: the speaker, the occasion, and the text as delivered or as reliably transcribed. Where a speech was not given in English or French, the original is offered alongside a translation. The Centre supplies context, not commentary, and leaves the words to stand.

← Back to the list

19 September 2023

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Evil cannot be trusted

On 19 September 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the UN General Assembly during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, warning that aggression cannot be trusted. Delivered in Ukrainian.

Ukraine gave up its third largest nuclear Arsenal. The world then decided Russia should become a keeper of such power. Yet, history shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most back in the 1990s. And Russia deserves it now. Terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons. No right.

The mass destruction is gaining its momentum. The aggressor is weaponizing many other things and those things are used not only against our country but against all of yours as well.

Since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian ports in the Black and Azov Seas have been blocked by Russia. Until now, our ports on the Danube River remain the target for missiles and drones. And it is a clear Russia’s attempt to weaponize the food shortage on the global market in exchange for recognition for some, if not all, of the captured territories.

Russia is launching the food prices as weapons.

Is there any sense to reduce nuclear weapons when Russia is weaponizing nuclear power plants? Scary question. The global security architecture offers no response or protection against such a treacherous radiation threat… And there is no accountability for radiation blackmailers so far.

And the goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, resources into a weapon against you against you, the international rules-based order. Many seats in the General Assembly Hall may become empty if Russia succeeds with its treachery and aggression.

As nukes are restrained, likewise the aggressor must be restrained and all its tools and methods of war. Each war now can become final, but it takes our unity to make sure that aggression will not break in again.

I am aware of the attempts to make some shady dealings behind the scenes.

Evil cannot be trusted.

Ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises. Please, hear me. Let unity decide everything openly.

While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression no one in the world will dare to attack any nation. Weaponization must be restrained. War crimes must be punished. Deported people must come back home. And the occupier must return to their own land. We must be united to make it. And we will do it. Slava Ukraini.

Historical record. The Centre neither holds nor claims any copyright in these speeches. They are gathered and reproduced here as a historical record from public and archival sources. A rights holder who wishes a speech removed, or aligned to an authorized source, may request this through our contact page.