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Speech by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Ambassador Cujbă,
Ambassador Tochytskyi,
Excellencies,
Friends of Ukraine,
In war, ordinary lives are asked to do extraordinary things.
This is one of those lives.
Four years into this war, at age forty, Olena packed her things
She left her life in the city behind and enlisted to fight on the eastern front.
That is where her mother lives.
As Russian forces moved closer, she decided to act.
Olena is not her real name.
I heard her story in Kyiv last week, from a friend of hers.
Olena is one of the thousands of women serving in Ukraine’s armed forces.
Her mother’s life was as far as she would let this war go.
That is where Olena drew the line.
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In the end, our actions are what define us.
Everything else is secondary.
So where do we, as Europeans, draw the line?
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We draw it where law prevails over force.
That is why the Council of Europe excluded Russia.
We acted immediately, and without hesitation.
A country that wages a war of aggression against one of our members has no place among us.
When others are ready to discard the post-war legal order, Europe stands by it.
In Ukraine and across Europe, force does not decide.
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First, we ensure that law prevails over force.
Second, we hold the line between the values we claim and the choices we make.
The Council of Europe has chosen accountability.
We document the damage, establish compensation mechanisms, and prepare a tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression.
Peace, when it comes, cannot be built on impunity.
We are building it on democratic security.
Every part of the Council of Europe is engaged in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
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The last line is the one we draw within ourselves.
It is the moment when distance disappears and we become one.
One with the people left to freeze in the coldest winter of the war.
One with the children of Ukraine.
One with the veterans and their sacrifices.
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Like Olena, we must decide how far we let this war go.
Ukraine lives in all of us.
Now is the time for peace.
For reconstruction.
For a free Ukraine in a secure Europe.
Thank you.