“I intend to hand over the decoration. I know that there are those who agree – and they are the majority of the Portuguese people – and there are those who disagree and are annoyed by this fact.”
On Wednesday, the President of the Republic assumed that the arrival of a new Ukrainian ambassador to Portugal paves the way for preparations for his visit to Kiev, where he hopes to award Zelensky with the Medal of Freedom.
“I’m still intent [ir à Ucrânia] As soon as possible and we will finally get a new Ukrainian ambassador to Portugal, we have gone several months without an ambassador in Portugal. (…]This will allow scheduling a visit to Ukraine, at a time that Ukraine deems appropriate, ”Marcelo Rebelo de Souza told reporters, on the sidelines of the reception of the joint operational force that was on a mission in Turkey, in Lisbon.
On this visit, the Portuguese head of state hopes to finally award the Ukrainian president the Medal of Freedom. He commented, “I intend to hand over the decoration. I know that there are those who agree – and they are the majority of the Portuguese – and there are those who oppose and are annoyed by this fact,” referring to “some sectors associated with April 25.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Souza took advantage of this moment to justify awarding the Grand Medal of Freedom to the Ukrainian president. He began by saying, “We are not going to discuss what he was like before he became president, and how he governed as president. There are those who like it, and there are those who don’t.”
But “there is a common point” in all those marked by this sentence, Marcello notes: “There is a moment in the lives of those who have been decorated—may it be very long, it may be very short—when they had a basic truth to defend freedom. A gesture, a behavior, behavior “.
Zelensky’s decoration is based precisely on this principle, which justifies the President of the Republic, recalling the last year’s resistance of the Ukrainian people and leader against the Russian invasion.
“It is a fact that he has been fighting for the freedom of his people for a year now. Not only for his people, there are strategic reasons for sure. Now that he is fighting for the freedom of the Ukrainian people, he is also fighting. He deserves this year, like other gestures in defense of freedom in For very specific moments or longer, the decoration.”
Asked if he intends to present this award next month, Marcelo did not want to give a specific date, and reportedly wanted to do it “in person when he goes to Ukraine”.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president signed a decree appointing Marina Yuryevna Mykhailenko as Ukraine’s “extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador” to the Portuguese Republic, following the dismissal of Inna Onivets from her post in June last year.
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