Dear Ukrainian nation,
Dear fellow countrymen,
I address you from our capital square – St. Sophia Square.
I would like to inspire peace and hope in you.
Year Two thousand and eight passes – a hard year, leap year, no easy for each of us.
We must be grateful that it was in our lives. I dream of its hand taking away our problems, troubles and misunderstandings.
I whish there was confidence. I wish there was clarity. I wish there was light.
And there is light.
I will not speak of abstract things.
I will begin with words about people, who brought light into the life of Ukraine.
In this festive moment I think about the light of Mykhailo Zhyr’s family from Bukovyna, who adopted 155 children. He became a Hero of Ukraine this year.
I speak of the light of personal and national victory of every Ukrainian participant of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games.
I think about brilliant path and bright eyes of Yevhen Sverstiuk – philosopher and fighter for human rights, who was conferred Order of Freedom this year.
I speak of the Hero of Ukraine, actress Neonila Kriukova, who is confined to bed, yet adamant. This year she found strength to return to stage and to us. Her spirit is glorious because it is devoted to Ukraine.
Daily victory. Victory of life and victory of good.
This list is endless. I think about hundreds, thousands of our glorious names – those known and non-public.
I speak about all those who beats conditions- about tens of thousands of doctors, military men, policemen, coal miners, teachers, savers of lives and souls, of culture and memory, makers of this country – common honest and bright people.
I speak about you, dear fellow countrymen.
New Year’s eve is a personal moment for everyone to remember one’s own year and bring light from every good deed into the next year.
Out of this feeling live values arise, which are more than we are and more powerful than any challenges.
There is daily good directed at one another.
There is faith in supreme just power and in our strength.
There is dignity preserved every day – both personal and national.
There is Motherland and the State; one for all and made by all.
We are not a faceless mob. We are a great nation of personalities and our year that has passed is designated neither by politicians, nor by television shows but by our own successes, joys, emotional experience, concrete deeds and achievements.
Let’s be proud of every personal achievement and thus, I am sure, we will learn to be proud of our common accomplishments.
Because there are really important things among them: such practical changes as our accession to the WTO, future association agreement between Ukraine and the EU as well as other changes that have the potential to become historic – gradual realization of the nation, first steps towards unification of its spiritual life and our purification; purification of the past, which means purification of the future.
This is the light. And this is our pillar.
There are hard times for the world and for Ukraine in front of us.
I know that we will come through the challenge with confidence and I believe – without losses.
For that sake Ukrainian professionals already unite, leftover political or party separation.
We should make use of current crisis for the most important real and fundamental change of the country.
I address the people, who think and who understand the nature of processes going on in Ukraine.
Many of you stepped aside, are tired of politics and of inability to change state of affairs.
Don’t lose heart. Don’t be silent. Come back. Become a loud and truthful voice of Ukraine.
A address our whole nation.
Don’t let worries into your hearts. We will be able to do everything. We will do it better than any other time.
Let 2009 becomes a year of happiness for us.
Let it helps us distinguish truth from lies and become stronger and more successful.
Let it bring happiness to our every home, to our every family to each one of us.
New Year is at the doorstep of our heart.
Welcoming it I ask God for blessing and protection for all of us.
I wish happiness, good and great unbreakable strength to the whole Ukrainian nation.
May God protect us.
I wish You heartly and with great love, my dear fellow countrymen a happy 2009 New Year!
