Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Security Council, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today marks four years since the launch of the war against Ukraine.

Four years of bombarded cities and drone strikes. Four years of divided families. Four years of trenches, minefields, and mass graves.

We stand here, in an institution created to protect peace. 

And yet, for four years, we have been watching an open aggression against a sovereign state that it seems impossible to stop.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once, a wall stood in Europe.

It separated freedom from oppression. It separated truth from propaganda. It separated the future from the past.

That wall no longer stands in Berlin. It stands in Ukraine now.

It takes the form of the front line. It takes the form of occupied cities. It takes the form of children who learn to recognize the sound of missiles before they learn their letters.

As U.S. President Reagan said his famous words to President Gorbachev “Tear down this wall!” in Berlin in 1987, we should send the same message to President Putin: “Mr. Putin, break this war down.”

This war is not just about territory.

It is about a fundamental principle: Whether nations have the right to decide their own future—or whether their fate is decided by the force of arms.

It is about whether borders can be redrawn by tanks. Whether a neighboring state can be erased from the map. Whether we are returning to a world of spheres of influence and occupation.

Ukraine is not just defending itself today.

It is defending the idea that sovereignty matters. That freedom is not a bargaining chip. 
That aggression must not be rewarded.

My country the Czech Republic knows this experience.

We know what it means when others decide your fate. It knows that appeasing aggression does not bring peace—it only delays the next conflict.

History teaches us a simple lesson:

No occupation lasts forever. No wall stands forever. And no army can break the will of a nation that has chosen to be free.

And that is why I want to speak plainly today.

I am sorry that Ambassador Nebenzya left the room, because I wanted to tell him to tell people in Moscow to stop this war and give peace a chance.

Not as a gesture of weakness, but as a step of responsibility.

The world is watching you. History is watching you.

And with every additional day of this war, the unnecessary bill of human suffering grows.
Some say that peace is not possible.

But peace always begins with a decision.

A decision to stop the destruction. A decision to stop sending young men to their deaths. 

A decision to open the way for diplomacy instead of artillery.

Aggression is not a sign of strength. It is an admission of fear.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is not just about Ukraine.

It is about the message we send to the world.

Whether we say that war pays off. Or that the civilized world stands with the victims, not the aggressors.

Whether we accept that the law is silent when weapons speak. Or whether we can show that values have weight.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to urge you to exhaust every diplomatic avenue in pursuit of a just and lasting peace.

In that regard, I commend President Trump and his team for their tireless efforts to bring the parties to the table. 

Talks, however imperfect, are infinitely preferable to the alternative.

The future does not have to belong to the trenches.

It can belong to reconstruction. It can belong to cooperation. It can belong to a generation that will no longer know the sound of sirens and drones.

But that future begins with a single decision.

Please Honorable Representatives from Russia, tell your President Putin to stop this war.

Thank you.