His requests would have fit on a post-it note: more weapons for Ukraine, more sanctions against Russia. But his speech to the US Congress provided an opportunity for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do more than just convey those two requests. In less than fifteen minutes on Wednesday, he forged his country, the United States and the democratic countries together into a community of values that can do nothing but help each other in need. Zelensky extended the war in his own country to the world, as the Emperor of Ethiopia did in 1936 when his country was attacked by fascist Italy. “I pray to God that he spares other countries the suffering that is being caused to my people,” Haile Se-lassie said at the time.
Zelensky’s unifying rhetoric was further enhanced by the TV speech delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin at almost the same time. The circumstances and imagery were more or less the same. Both leaders spoke directly into the camera in a sustained medium shot, each from his own presidential palace. Zelensky came under fire from “air strikes and missiles by Russian troops”, Putin sighed at the mainly Western sanctions “against our economy, our social and cultural life, every family, every Russian citizen”.
Also read this article about the speech from Moscow: Putin sees ‘need for purges’
Where Zelensky said that Ukrainians are fighting not just for themselves “but for the values of Europe and the world,” Putin spoke of Russian rich who “live in Miami or on the French Riviera and no longer do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom.” be able to”. These Russians are no longer real Russians, Putin said. “And the Russian people, who will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors, will spit them out like an insect that flies into your mouth, spit them out on the sidewalk.”
Zelensky had inserted a video into his speech in which images of the past life in Ukraine were interspersed with the devastation of today. Among the images was a popular Russian folk song “You know, that’s how I want to live” by the group Rozhdestvo. With this one choice, Zelensky made it clear that the Russians are not his enemy, only Putin’s regime.
Zelensky’s rhetorical tricks are well illustrated by three examples from his speech.
1. “Russia has attacked not only us, not only our country, our cities. It has launched a brutal offensive against our values, basic human values.”
In the first part of his speech, Zelensky attracts his audience by presenting himself as more than the representative of that one country, Ukraine. He is our neighbor in this world. He uses the phrase “just like” or “the same” seven times here. In this way he bridges the distance between Ukraine and the rest of the world. “We have the same dreams as you, Americans.” It is a prelude to the everyday images of children playing and citizens walking, which are alternated in the film with those of violence and suffering.
2. “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001.”
Zelensky delicately weaves American history through his speech. He refers to Mount Rushmore, the rock-cut portraits of American presidents who laid the foundation for “democracy, independence and freedom.” He refers to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And he mentions the attacks on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese air force and the attacks of September 11, 2001. For example, he reminds the Americans that they too were once victims of international aggression in order to establish empathy with the Ukrainians.
3. “I urge you to do more.”
The boldest sentence in the speech. After Zelensky thanked his direct audience, the United States House of Representatives, he got to the point. Nice what you’ve done so far, thanks, but it’s not enough to save my country. “Today it is no longer enough to be the leader of a country. Today you have to be the leader of the world, and that means the leader of peace.” Zelensky flatters his audience and President Biden in person with those sentences at the end of his speech, but it is above all a repetition of his appeal: more weapons, more sanctions. Please.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 18, 2022