Kira Rudik wows Conference with a powerful and personal speech

By Mary Reid | Mon 25th September 2023 - 12:13 pm

Kira Rudik is the leader of Holos, the first Liberal Party to be elected to the Ukrainian Parliament. She is also Vice President of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe – the political grouping that brings together like-minded political parties within Europe. She is a proud European and has campaigned for many years for Ukraine to join the EU.

She was welcomed on to the stage by Layla Moran, who was dressed in the blue and yellow of Ukraine. Kira started with some thank yous – and it was clear she knew a number of our senior members well.

She then told us about the day the invasion happened, starting at 5am. Kira and nearly two thirds of the MPs made their way to the Parliament Building – a highly dangerous act as the building was an obvious target. They were allowed 10 minutes together in the chamber during which time they hit buttons furiously so they could pass all the necessary legislation. All the political parties vowed to work together until the war was over – a pledge that has been challenging but still holds.

You can watch her speech here:

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.

4 Comments

Sandy Smith 25th Sep '23 - 3:28pm

“All the political parties vowed to work together until the war was over- a pledge that has been challenging but still holds”

Really? Within a month, 11 political parties were banned including the main opposition party in the Ukrainian parliament. Does that not undermine either the “all” or the “still holds” part of the claim I have quoted?
Tom Harney 26th Sep '23 - 11:09am

Thank you for this. The video works perfectly.
EricP 26th Sep '23 - 10:23pm

@Sandy Smith – Those 11 banned political parties (a number of which had zero parliamentary representation) had links to russia. I think most reasonable people could understand why it might be a good idea to ban such parties when your country is under russian invasion. The largest opposition party, Opposition Platform for Life’s then leader Medvedchuk had been identified by US intelligence as a contender to lead a pro-Kremlin government. If a political party engages in treasonous behaviour, don’t be surprised when you end up getting banned.
Sandy Smith 27th Sep '23 - 7:23am

@EricP
Your comments may all be perfectly valid but that does not detract from the point I was making – the suggestion that all the political parties were still working together was, at best, disingenuous.