The Ukrainian President exchanged for an hour with Parisian students on Wednesday, May 11, and questioned them about their own perception of Russian aggression.
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For his very first speech in front of a student audience, Wednesday, May 11, Volodymyr Zelensky chose France. On the initiative of the Ukraine Embassy in France, the Head of State was interviewed during a videoconferencing by a dozen students of Sciences Po, Polytechnique, the National Institute of Public Service (ISP, Ex-ENA), the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco) and Paris-Panthéon-Sorbonne universities and Sorbonne University. He wanted, in return, to probe a French youth whom he described as “luminous”, at a time when another youth, Ukrainian, has gone to war, “intrepid”, composed of young men “making Long tails in front of the military police stations to defend their cities, “said the president of Ukraine.
The exchange, which lasted more than an hour, was followed live by nearly 8,000 students, in many amphitheatres everywhere in France and on YouTube. The Ukrainian Head of State praised “the contribution of French students [who] has been fundamental since May-68: there is no politician who fear only a student comes to tell him that he is forbidden to ban “.
In a sincere and direct language, Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out the contradictions that animate Europe. “Why no European or global institution has yet been able to arrest this war? This is a question that should not remain rhetorical, he insisted. This is a question that requires answers, it’s a question which concerns Europe. “
Regarding the request for membership of his country to the European Union, the president expressed the firmness of his intentions at the same time as his incomprehension with regard to “European leaders”. “We cannot keep ourselves at a distance, say that we are going to take us and ultimately not take us, as in a family meeting where you would have invited you without planning you,” he said .
“I am a young man, who wants to live”
Curious about the look of French students on the consequences of Russian aggression towards his country, Volodymyr Zelensky has multiplied the questions: “How to accelerate the functioning of international justice? What would be a sufficient sentence for a soldier who has violated a child? Why is there no way to punish criminals quickly? If Russia attacked Latvia for example, would NATO go to fight? “Impressed by the exercise, some Students delivered personal responses, such as Caroline Weill, student at the National Public Service Institute (INSP) who shared the position of the Ukrainian president, believing that “the institutional processes of EU membership are too slow”. “We must reflect on a political community in which Ukraine would be intended to participate [upstream] of its membership in the European Union,” she added.
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