Dear fellow citizens!
77 years ago today, the Second World War ended in Europe.
The silence of the guns on May 8, 1945 was like a graveyard quiet - over the graves of more than 60 million women, men and children.
Millions of them fell on the battlefields.
Millions have been murdered in their towns and villages, in concentration or extermination camps.
Germans committed this crime against humanity.
It is all the more painful to experience how today, 77 years after the end of the Second World War, brute force is once again breaking the law in the middle of Europe.
How Russia's army kills men, women and children in Ukraine, reduces cities to rubble and even attacks those who are fleeing.
For me, this is a May 8th like no other.
That's why I'm turning to you today.
We cannot commemorate the end of the Second World War in Europe without facing the fact: there is war again in Europe.
Russia unleashed this war.
Russians and Ukrainians once fought together, making great sacrifices, to defeat Germany's murderous National Socialism.
At that time, Germany was guilty of both nations, the Russian and the Ukrainian.
We have been striving for reconciliation with both of them for decades.
Now, however, Russia's President Putin wants to subdue Ukraine, destroying its culture and identity.
President Putin even equates his barbaric war of aggression with the fight against National Socialism.
This is historically falsified and infamous.
It is our duty to state this clearly.
But it's not done with that.
It was the Allied military victory that put an end to the Nazi dictatorship in Germany.
We Germans are grateful for that to this day!
In 1985, the Federal President at the time, Richard von Weizsäcker, was therefore able to speak of May 8 as the "Day of Liberation".
We learned a key lesson from our country's catastrophic history between 1933 and 1945.
It reads: "Never again!" Never again war.
Never again genocide.
Never again tyranny.
And yet it happened again - war in Europe.
This was pointed out by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy today.
In the current situation, this can only mean: We defend justice and freedom - on the side of the attacked.
We support Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor.
Not doing so would mean capitulating to sheer violence – and empowering the aggressor.
We help so that the violence can come to an end.
That is why we have made far-reaching and difficult decisions in the past few days and weeks - quickly and decisively, well thought out and weighed up.
We have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia's economy and leadership in an attempt to dissuade Putin from his war drive.
We welcomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians with open arms.
Hundreds of thousands who find refuge from the violence in their homeland with us.
Aid organizations provide initial support, schools and day-care centers set up welcome classes, and citizens take refugees into their homes.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this enormous willingness to help everywhere in our country!
And - for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, we have sent weapons to such a war zone, on a large scale - and always carefully weighing up heavy equipment.
We'll continue.