0:11 i cannot be more appreciative
0:13 for this invitation
0:15 and for this unique opportunity to speak
0:18 here on women's rights day
0:22 at probably the darkest hour in europe
0:28 for most of my literary career i've been
0:31 speaking for women and in the name of women
0:32 women
0:34 in my writings i've been aimed to give
0:36 voice to the experiences of women
0:38 subjected to violence
0:42 to those living and dead whose feelings
0:44 ideas or accomplishments were ignored
0:48 devalued or simply forgotten
0:50 i've spoken for women's rights to be
0:52 free from discrimination and gender
0:55 inequality for their right to live in
0:58 accordance with their own wishes and preferences
1:00 preferences
1:02 this however is
1:04 is
1:05 the first time
1:07 that i have to stand up
1:09 for a woman's right
1:10 right
1:20 ukrainians are a strong nation
1:22 this appears to have surprised many in
1:23 the west
1:25 yet were it not so we would not have
1:28 survived stalin's genocide the horrific
1:32 man-made famine of 1933
1:35 notably still unrecognized by most of
1:39 the countries represented here
1:43 and we are a nation of strong women too
1:45 along with the rest of the world
1:48 i cannot but admire with tears in my eyes
1:49 eyes
1:52 my fellow country women now fighting
1:56 right alongside our men
1:58 they've joined the army and the civil
2:00 territorial defense forces
2:03 they manage the distribution of supplies
2:06 across our besieged cities
2:09 some of which like mariopol stand on the
2:13 verge of a humanitarian catastrophe now
2:16 they give birth in bomb shelters
2:19 supported and supervised by doctors online
2:20 online
2:23 ukrainian doctors meanwhile have created
2:26 facebook pages offering instructions on
2:30 how women over 37 weeks pregnant might
2:35 safely deliver children in bomb shelters
2:37 an image
2:41 that strikes me as almost biblical as
2:45 sounds of mary's hide with their
2:48 newborns evading king carrot in
2:52 basements subway stations and other stables
2:54 stables yes
2:55 yes
2:57 we are strong
2:59 and grateful
3:01 for your support
3:04 and your admiration
3:07 the problem is putin's bombs
3:10 will not be stopped
3:14 by the strengths of our spirit
3:17 and babies born in bomb shelters die of
3:21 sepsis caused with the dust raining down
3:25 on them during attacks
3:36 since february 24th
3:38 when russia launched its invasion
3:41 conceived as the blitzkrieg only to be
3:43 foiled by the ferocious determination of
3:47 our military and mobilized civilians
3:49 one of history's unshakable rules has
3:51 been reconfirmed
3:53 in any hot war
3:54 war
3:56 women make
3:59 the most vulnerable targets
4:01 if only because it's women who remain to
4:04 take care of those in need
4:07 of children and the elderly
4:10 and it is precisely this
4:12 living shield
4:14 which vladimir putin
4:18 now uses to break ukraine's heroic resistance
4:20 resistance
4:23 having failed to take cave
4:24 putin began
4:27 shelling residential areas
4:30 including elementary schools nurseries
4:36 let me take the liberty of stressing this
4:38 this every
4:39 every
4:41 moment of hesitation
4:44 on the side of western policy makers
4:47 and nato decision makers
4:51 about whether to provide ukraine with
4:53 anti-aircraft weapons
4:56 not to speak of the no-fly zone
4:59 every coffee break you are taking during
5:02 your discussions about how to interfere
5:06 without provoking putin to go further costs
5:08 costs
5:10 someone's life
5:14 most likely a civilians
5:22 after all putin said it quite openly
5:26 back on april 17 2014
5:28 in the first act
5:29 act
5:38 which he called special military
5:41 operation russian spring
5:43 and which then resulted in the
5:47 annexation of crimea and in creating two
5:49 russian-controlled military zones in
5:52 donbass but was initially meant to
5:55 accomplish much more
5:56 that day
6:00 eight years ago he openly announced
6:03 that russian troops in donbass
6:09 would be standing against ukrainian army behind
6:10 behind
6:14 ukrainian women and children
6:17 i quote literally not in front of them
6:18 but behind
6:23 behind daring ukrainian army
6:25 to shoot
6:28 a living shield a typical terrorist tactic
6:32 he was then so confident
6:35 of his superiority
6:40 so sure that no one would dare stop him
6:43 that he did not even bother to lie out
6:47 of contempt to his audience
6:51 isn't it amazing ladies and gentlemen
6:52 that no one
6:55 outside of ukraine maybe took them his
6:58 words seriously
7:01 in may 2014 after russian soldiers in
7:03 donbass had already begun slicing open
7:05 people's bellies and shooting at
7:07 teenagers for carrying yellow and blue flags
7:09 flags
7:11 i was speaking in berlin at the european
7:12 writers forum
7:14 and when in my speech i compared putin
7:17 into hitler and stalin the moderator was
7:19 so shocked that my microphone was turned
7:21 off and in the publication the
7:28 eight years passed
7:30 so many human lives could have been saved
7:32 saved
7:35 if only the eu and the us
7:37 would have woken up
7:39 eight years ago to the fact that they
7:41 knew hitler
7:45 was ready to pick up where the previous
7:47 one had left off [Applause]
7:54 [Applause]
7:56 if the current package of sanctions had
8:22 sound similar to the litanies
8:25 that writers and intellectuals who survived
8:27 survived
8:29 world war ii
8:33 were proposing after the war ended
8:37 yet for me it is also a sign that we
8:39 and by we i mean all western civilization
8:40 civilization
8:42 to which ukraine with its millennium
8:46 long history also belongs
8:48 that we have not learned too much from history
8:50 history
8:53 putin deliberately imitates hitler he
8:56 even uses hitler's very language
8:59 referring to the final solution of the
9:01 ukrainian question
9:04 and barely disguising quotations from
9:08 hitler's speech at reichstag on
9:16 i will not war against women and children
9:17 children
9:22 i have ordered my air force to restrict
9:27 itself to attacks on military objectives
9:29 that's from 1939
9:37 yes ladies and gentlemen it is
9:40 the announcement of war
9:44 vladimir putin has done it in his tricky
9:45 tricky
9:48 perverted kgb language
9:51 but i am here to tell you as a writer
9:54 who does know something about language
9:58 and how easily its power can be misused
10:01 that it is already a world war
10:03 not a
10:05 conflict in ukraine as it is still
10:09 described in many western media
10:11 and that you better trust
10:13 mr putin when he pronounces his ambitions
10:15 ambitions
10:18 he has already claimed back the former
10:20 soviet bloc which is what he really
10:23 means by demanding that nato pull back
10:26 from eastern europe and he won't stop unless
10:27 unless
10:31 he is stopped by an international front
10:34 of all those nations who still believe
10:36 that freedom
10:38 and human solidarity
10:40 are worth more
10:43 than gas and oil [Applause]
10:50 [Applause]
10:51 ladies and gentlemen
10:53 you have all seen videos
10:56 of how ukrainian civilians men and women
10:58 stop russian tanks with bare hands and
11:01 loud curses
11:05 here lies the secret of our heroism
11:07 we are not
11:10 afraid of russia
11:13 of all the nations in europe we know
11:15 that what putin has for decades been
11:17 selling to the west
11:19 as the true story
11:23 his nuclear blackmailing included is
11:24 is
11:27 nothing but a pack of lies
11:33 we know this because we do have our share
11:34 share
11:35 in the past
11:40 300 years of russian imperial greatness
11:44 and by no means a minor one
11:46 that is why of all the nations that is
11:48 ukraine that has found herself at the
11:50 forefront of this war
11:52 without us
11:57 there can be no russian empire no
11:57 no
12:01 evil empire ladies and gentlemen that
12:06 first
12:09 there was austria then czechoslovakia
12:12 then poland then europe
12:15 first it was georgia then belarus then ukraine
12:16 ukraine afterwards
12:17 afterwards europe
12:20 europe
12:23 while i was writing this
12:24 my niece
12:26 and her two children
12:28 one eight years old the other eight
12:30 months old
12:32 were driving from cave to western ukraine
12:34 ukraine
12:35 at a speed
12:40 200 kilometers in 10 hours
12:44 women of ukraine are fleeing and mass
12:46 from the russian bombs flattening their homes
12:48 homes
12:50 while ukrainian men stay to fight as
12:52 long as it's needed
12:56 to free europe from the specter of the
12:59 new totalitarianism
13:02 they all know their job
13:04 both men and women
13:06 please don't
13:08 be afraid
13:12 to protect the sky above them
