Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi attended a meeting of the Senate of the Ukrainian Catholic University on February 8.
This was reported by the UCU press service.
He met with the Head of the UGCC, Grand Chancellor of the UCU, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, and discussed with the senators the possibilities of cooperation with the university.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav presented Valeriy Zaluzhnyi with his book “Ukraine Stands! Ukraine Fights! Ukraine Prays!”.
The ambassador also met with UCU students at the Sheptytskyi Center. The event was moderated by the Director of the UCU School of Public Administration, Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration, Valentyna Zasadko.
During the meeting, Ambassador Zaluzhnyi spoke about his military service, his work as an ambassador, about NATO, and how he sees Ukraine’s victory.
“In 2007, I changed my approach to people and saw them differently. I tried to change the system of ‘the commander is always right,’” he shared with the audience.
When commanding, Valery Zaluzhnyi said, he is guided by three principles – remember the people, remember yourself, remember the work that needs to be done.
“Combine everything with virtues, and everything will work out. I do not consider myself absolutely right, especially in times of crisis. I can be wrong, and anything I say can be challenged,” Zaluzhnyi noted during the meeting.
He emphasized that, until a coalition is created in the world that will stop the axis of evil (Russia – ed.), there can be no talk of ending the war and a just peace – there will be no recovery.
“Today, Ukraine,while bleeding, miraculously keeps fighting against the axis of evil. There is no alliance, no coalition in the world. Until it is created, we will not destroy this axis of evil. We have not stopped the regional war, so now we have a global war that must be settled at the global level. We must rely on ourselves, on God, on our partners. We are a people with our own language, history, culture, and we cannot just die like that,” the general emphasized.
He added, “Ukraine’s victory will be when Russia disintegrates into 27, or better yet, 69, principalities, and before that someone takes away their nuclear weapons. But is the world ready for this? – The world is not ready for this. I am sure that the empire has its own charge of strength. This will all end someday,” Zaluzhnyi noted.
Speaking about NATO, the diplomat emphasized that it has long ceased to be a military alliance, but rather a political and economic one: “Unfortunately, NATO as a military institution has no power. NATO serves mainly the political interests of the allies.”
When asked how educators can be useful in times of war, the ambassador to the UK added: “The easiest place where we can go and gain a foothold in the world is education. There are no Ukrainian schools in Britain. There is also the archive of the Union of Ukrainians (the oldest Ukrainian public institution in Britain, – ed.), which needs to be saved and digitized. The most active Ukrainian community in Britain is our students. We take them as an example.”
