"I believe that we need to focus on the future, not the past. We need to build a new Ukraine, a country that is united and prosperous"

Zelensky frames leadership as an act of orientation: turning a nation’s gaze from grievance to possibility. Prioritizing the future over the past is not a denial of memory but a refusal to be immobilized by it; Ukraine’s traumas, the legacy of imperial domination, corruption, and the devastation of war, remain real, yet they cannot be the sole architects of policy. The pivot he proposes is strategic: growth, institutional renewal, and civic cohesion require goals that are compelling enough to transcend old cleavages.

“Build a new Ukraine” signals more than reconstruction of buildings. It points to rebuilding trust: an independent judiciary, transparent public finance, de-oligarchization of media and markets, and a professional civil service. Prosperity is framed as the product of rules, not favors, conditions that attract investment, repatriate talent from the diaspora, and channel wartime ingenuity into peacetime industries, from technology and defense to green energy and agriculture.

Unity in this context is civic, not ethnic or linguistic. It invites Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking citizens, veterans and displaced families, eastern and western regions, to share a common political project. Such unity is not uniformity; it is a commitment to pluralism safeguarded by strong institutions. Remembering past injustices remains essential for accountability, but the moral horizon is constructive: build something that outlasts vengeance.

The rhetoric is deliberately collective, “we need to”, making every citizen a stakeholder. It converts suffering into agency, mourning into motivation. It also implies difficult trade-offs: reform fatigue, anti-corruption battles, and social reintegration of those scarred by war. Yet the north star is clear: a country secure in its borders and attractive to its children.

By articulating hope as a program, not a sentiment, the statement fuses resilience with ambition. The future becomes a discipline, a daily practice of choosing institutions, incentives, and identities that allow a free Ukraine to flourish for generations ahead.