“Truth always defeats the invader” Address to the nation

I am addressing you today, in this snowy and cold February of the year two thousand and twenty-six, feeling with every fiber of my soul the pulsation of each of our Ukrainian fields, from the long-suffering Kherson region to the iron Zaporizhzhya, from the hardworking Mykolaiv region to the steppes of Donbas. You know, I always said: Ukrainian chernozem is the holy sacrament of our history, the very blood and bone of our family, which sprouts like a cob into the future. And today, four years after the beginning of this great influx, we see how the enemy continues to tear this flesh.

You and I stand at the pinnacle of historical experience, where the parallels between February 1922 and the events of the last four years — from February 2022 to today — are drawn not just by ink, but by the indomitable will of our people. The first thing I want to emphasize is Moscow’s perennial attempts to tear out the roots of our self-sufficiency.

Look in the mirror of centuries. It was at the beginning of February 1922, when the same frosts were raging, that the occupying Bolshevik horde began mass seizure of bread. They understood: as long as a Ukrainian has his bread and his pantry, he is invincible. At that time, more than 13.5 million poods of grain were exported from the southern provinces — primarily from the Odesa region and Zaporizhzhia. This is 220 thousand tons of Ukrainian life! That February a hundred years ago, convoys with our grain were driven north under the muzzles of rifles, until the Ukrainian mother had nothing to feed her child.

And now look at these four years that have passed since that black February 24, 2022. The same sacrilege, but on a scale that makes the world shudder! During this time — from 2022 to today, February 2026 — the occupier has already stolen more than 17 million tons of our grain from our silos.

Just think about this cynicism of today:

they have been robbing the ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol for years, taking away what our farmers sowed under the fire of the “Grads”.

They have set up an entire industry of lies, mixing our holy grain with their filth to sell it to the world as their own.

They destroy our elevators with rockets when they cannot steal, because their logic has not changed in a hundred years: “If it’s not mine, let it burn.”

This is the same eternal, immortal treachery.

Then, in 1922, they talked about a “world revolution”. Today they talk about “territory protection”. But what is your land if you replaced every meter of it?

Is the owner mining his own field, as they mined thousands of hectares of our Ukrainian land? This is the psychology of a marauder who knows his time is running out.

But I will tell you as a person who believes in the power of the Ukrainian spirit: the bread stolen in February 1922 was the beginning of the end of their first empire. The bread stolen between February 2022 and today will be the final sentence for their current regime.

We are standing. We count every grain. And in this February 2026, I believe more than ever: we will return to Skadovsk, Genichesk, and Melitopol. We will sow these steppes again with free grain. Because the Ukrainian sun shines only for those who love this land, not rob it.

Hang in there, my dears. We are a nation of farmers, we are masters of our sky and our field. And the truth always defeats the invader.