Ladies and Gentlemen, CORE and all the participants of this charity evening!
107 days ago, Russia launched a full-scale war against us. All of you have heard about the horrors that Ukraine is going through. Tens of thousands of explosions and shots. Hundreds of thousands wounded and killed. Millions who have lost their homes. All of this is not a logline for a horror film. All of this is our reality.
All of you have seen photos from Ukraine. Peaceful cities and villages wiped off the face of the earth. All of this is not the scenery of a blockbuster about the apocalypse. All of this is our reality.
All of you have seen footage from Ukraine. Cruise missiles and bombs that raze schools, hospitals, theaters, museums, entire streets and neighborhoods to the ground. It is not VFX, not computer graphics. All of this is our reality.
But definitely we will rebuild Ukraine. Streets and neighborhoods, peaceful cities and villages. We will heal bodies from wounds and souls from losses. All of this is not a synopsis of a fiction film. All of this is our reality and our future. And all of you can help us in this.
During World War II, when all the metal was needed at the frontline, the Oscar statuette was made of plaster. It can fairly be said that this is a symbolic gesture that does not drastically affect the course of the war. But we cannot claim that the world would have defeated Nazism without a piece of metal. No. We do not know for sure. That is why we know that any help is valuable and important. I thank everyone who has come here today for the sake of this help – help for Ukraine. Mr. Sean Penn, who has been personally in Kyiv and Ukraine since the first day of the war and has seen firsthand this evil, which is called Russian full-scale aggression.
You were ready to melt your Oscar in protest against the lack of support to Ukraine. I hope that this will not be necessary. Other metal must melt. Weapons of barbarians, which kill civilians, women, the elderly and small children, must melt. The aggressor’s equipment, its tanks, planes, ships, rockets and all other iron that brings evil must melt. We have been resisting it for 107 days in a row. We can stop it together. Support Ukraine because Ukraine supports the whole world. Fight for Ukraine because Ukraine is fighting for the whole world. For democracy. For freedom. For life!
Glory to Ukraine!