President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed students and teachers of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of its formation.

"125 years for the university is youth. But, although it is young, our National Technical University is well known in the world, it is known in different countries, whose people studied here, and most importantly, the university has gained the trust of Ukrainians. And this is a well-deserved trust. Because it is a really strong university," Zelenskyy said, thanking them for supporting the glory and strength of the KPI.

As the President stressed, "no matter how difficult it is and no matter what the times are, it still remains the same that education matters." "Without it, it is almost impossible to win in competition with others, and in difficult times there are no victories without it," he said.

He also noted that almost every day there are news about another “bavovna” (“cotton” – explosions in Russian) on the territory of the aggressor, which “give a little more sense of justice to our people, since the war with its consequences returns back to the aggressor."

"But what is the basis of it? For justice to return, someone's knowledge must work. And work on the result. The cruiser Moskva went to the bottom because the competencies of thousands of Ukrainians worked - from developers and manufacturers of missiles to specific soldiers who performed the operation. Every combat use of our marine drones is a fact that the education of many people who created drones controlled by them, ensuring the existence of such a new force of ours, has worked," Zelenskyy said.

"We now have the production of guns, which we didn’t have in Ukraine before. The right shells, drones. And each such result of Ukraine is the education of a specific Ukrainian, a specific Ukrainian woman. And, by the way, many of them were educated here – at the Kyiv Polytechnic. And in other Ukrainian technical universities," he added.

The Head of State also cited as an example the integrity of Ukrainian lawyers, their foreign partners and the team of the International Criminal Court, who recorded Russian war crimes, and now "Putin is afraid to go somewhere beyond Gelendzhik or where they are still ready to host him."

"Neither such institutions working in defense against Russian evil, nor such principles as this warrant [for the arrest of Putin], nor such a clear work on recording what Russia has done would not have been without proper education," Zelenskyy said.

In his address, the President noted that "Ukraine is defending itself in a fundamentally new war, so it is Ukrainian defense and Ukrainian victory that will be a lesson for other peoples – how to defend themselves."

"This also applies to the drone war – everyone in the world is already drawing conclusions. Tactics on the battlefield. Cyber defense. Information warfare. The world sees what equipment works, which solutions help. What strengthens the defense … These are many thousands of technical, managerial and other decisions that have worked for Ukraine. If Ukrainians were not an educated nation, if the social competence of our people was not so high, if we were not committed to innovation and ready for the most open dialogue with the world for the sake of our defense, the fate of Ukraine could be similar to what other peoples whose independence has been lost are experiencing. But Ukraine has withstood, defends itself and returns its own. Thanks to courage, unity, weapons and support for peace. And thanks to the fact that each of these elements works on an educational basis. And let Ukraine become stronger - together with Ukrainian education," he said.