More than a month into the war, Ukrainian forces are fighting tenaciously under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, while Russian forces have been suffering remarkable, unforeseen casualties and losses.
Since the beginning, the war has gone awry for Russia, the second-biggest military power in the world, and its indiscriminate attacks on civilians and other atrocities have been met with censure and condemnation.
So far, Taiwanese are waiting to see what the government can learn from this war, described as the most significant in Europe since 1945.
Ukraine’s resilience owes much to its “special people, an extraordinary people,” and its exceptional leader.
Since the war began, Zelenskiy and his team have stayed in Kyiv, appearing in videos to deliver words of encouragement at different locations in the besieged capital.
To seek assistance, the Ukrainian president has been busy conducting interviews with media around the world in his office, posting on Twitter and appealing to the international community.
One after another, he has been addressing the parliaments of the EU, the UK, the US, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Sweden, Canada and Israel, as well as international organizations such as NATO and the G7.
Pope Francis even made a call to the Ukrainian president to express his sorrow over the tragic events that are taking place in his nation.
By contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has misjudged the situation, is resorting to arms and nuclear weapons as threats. Using the ethno-nationalistic concept of “Ukraine is not even a nation, but part of Russia” to rationalize his invasion, Putin’s historical revisionism has received overwhelming denunciation worldwide, resulting in Russia facing deeper diplomatic isolation and economic stagnation.
Just like former US president Ronald Reagan, Ukraine’s actor-president has unleashed his inimitable charisma to elucidate Ukraine’s plight, and used masterful oratory to underscore Russia’s inhumanity in interviews and speeches. With an emphasis on universal values, his speeches have touched millions of people worldwide, winning him support and respect.
Zelenskiy’s exemplary performance has turned him into an icon of valor and a champion of democracy, earning him praise, such as: “The most respected wartime hero since World War II,” “Churchill in olive green,” “the moral compass of the Western world” and “a revolutionary icon like Che Guevara.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also been described as an “unequal fight, a David versus Goliath contest.”
Looking at Zelenskiy’s acclaimed speeches, we get to see how he wages an existential struggle for his nation — he has credited all of the success and glory to his people and nation, and shunned the notion that he is a hero or an icon.
In an interview with the New York Times, when asked if he was afraid for his life, he replied: “Like any living person, we all want to live. I believe that if this or that person is not afraid of losing his life or the life of his children, I believe that this is an unhealthy person.”
However, as he is the nation’s president, Zelenskiy said that he has “no right to fear for his life.”
In another interview, he told The Economist that Putin has no compassion for his troops and Putin “is throwing Russian soldiers like logs into a train’s furnace.”
When he addressed the US Congress, he said: “I am almost 45 years old. Today my age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths.”
In every speech, he always ends with the salute “Glory to Ukraine.”
In the speeches that the 44-year-old has been delivering to parliaments and international organizations, he has evoked universal values, patriotic sentiment and historic traumas to encapsulate the desperate plight of his own people. Tailoring his speeches to different nations, he taps into the national psyche of each nation by infusing his address with classic quotes and significant political moments in history, tugging at the heartstrings of listeners worldwide.
Zelenskiy’s performance is an example that words can sometimes be even more powerful than weapons.
For example, when addressing the Swedish parliament, he said it is no coincidence that “both Ukraine’s and Sweden’s flags are blue and yellow,” because both nations stand for freedom, justice and equal rights. He requested help in rebuilding his nation in the aftermath of the war.
When talking to French lawmakers, he compared the martyred city of Mariupol to the battle of Verdun, one of the most savagely fought battles in World War I, and invoked the national motto of “liberty, equality, fraternity.”
In his emotional speech to the US Congress, he made the conflict relatable to Americans by comparing Russia’s aggression to the attack on Pearl Harbor, “the terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you.”
Coalescing the national psyche, he talked of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, “when evil turned your cities, independent territories into battlefields.”
He quoted Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and added his own twist: “I have a need. I need your decision and your help, which means exactly the same as you feel when you hear: ‘I have a dream.’”
Zelenskiy called on Germans to help destroy a new “wall” Russia was erecting in Europe.
“It’s not a Berlin Wall — it is a wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage, and this wall is growing bigger with every bomb,” he said.
Appealing to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he said: “Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this wall,” repeating Reagan’s historic demand to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 as Reagan stood beside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Speaking to Japanese lawmakers, he recounted the nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986 to invoke the national tragedy of the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
He also alluded to Russia’s possible use of chemical weapons, such as the nerve gas sarin, the same chemical that a Japanese cult had used in an attack on Tokyo’s subway in 1995.
Describing the invasion as a “tsunami,” he asked Japan to join in imposing a trade embargo on Russia.
When addressing the House of Commons in London, Zelenskiy quoted Shakespeare and former British prime minister Winston Churchill by saying: “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost.”
“We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets. I would like to add that we will fight on the banks of different rivers, like the Dnieper,” he added.
Speaking to the Canadian parliament, he asked lawmakers to imagine bombs dropping in their nation.
He asked Italian lawmakers to enforce sanctions on Russia, to not become the place that welcomes Russian oligarchs.
He asked US President Joe Biden to become a “world leader for peace.”
Speaking in an earnest, beseeching tone, Zelenskiy has also shown moments of vehemence and ardor, and even made direct solicitations to world leaders. By doing so, he is asking nations to join in the defense of universal values. He emphasized that while Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, freedom and human rights, they are also fighting for all free citizens of the world.
He wrote on Twitter and tagged major US corporations, saying: “Today there can be no half-solutions or halftones! There is only black and white, good and evil! You are either for peace or support the bloody Russian aggressor in the murder of Ukrainian children and women.”
What is more important is that no nation is an island. As no nation can defend itself on its own, maintaining and strengthening alliances are essential to one’s national security. Therefore, Ukraine is fighting for Europe, for Putin’s ambition will not stop at Ukraine’s annexation.
From the perspective of the rest of the world, Taiwan plays a critical role in the manufacturing of semiconductors and is a vital cog within the global technology supply chain.
Taiwan has garnered attention and support from democratic nations in its defense of universal values in the face of Chinese intimidation and threats.
The concepts of freedom, democracy, human rights, self determination and national sovereignty, which Zelenskiy has been amplifying to the world, are the very values that Taiwan should be demonstrating and using to build further support from the global community.
Translated by Rita Wang
Source: Taipei Times - Editorials 2022/04/06
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