On Saturday 22 August 2026, thousands of people gathered at Ukrainian Festival Brisbane to celebrate 35 years of Ukraine’s independence and the strength, resilience and identity of the Ukrainian people.
During the Festival’s Official Opening Ceremony, Peter Bongiorni, President of the Ukrainian Community of Queensland Inc., delivered an address reflecting on what Ukrainian independence means at a time when Ukraine is once again fighting for its freedom, sovereignty and right to exist.
Speaking before members of Queensland’s Ukrainian community, representatives from all levels of government, community leaders and special guest Lieutenant Viktoriia Savkiv of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the address went beyond commemoration.
It confronted Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukrainian civilians and its systematic destruction of Ukrainian culture, including books, cultural institutions and heritage. It also addressed the growing promotion of a supposedly shared “Slavic” identity, Russian foreign interference and influence in Australia, and the damage that misinformation and division can cause within the Ukrainian diaspora.
At its heart was a simple message about identity and unity:
“We do not define ourselves as Slavic. We define ourselves as Ukrainian.
Ukraine is Ukraine.
We are Ukrainian.
And our identity is ours.”
And a challenge to Ukrainians everywhere:
“We should never become a stronger voice against each other than we are for Ukraine.”
The full video and transcript of the President’s Address are published below.
Добрий день, друзі. Слава Україні!
Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Ukrainian Festival Brisbane.
Before I begin, I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, the Jaggera and Turrbal peoples, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.
On behalf of the Ukrainian Community of Queensland Inc., it is my great pleasure to welcome you as we celebrate 35 years of Ukraine’s independence.
I want to extend a very special welcome to our Guest of Honour, Lieutenant Viktoriia Savkiv of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Viktoriia arrived in Brisbane last night from Ukraine via Poland, with Brisbane the first stop on her Australian visit.
At a festival celebrating Ukraine’s independence, while Ukrainians continue to fight for that independence every single day, it is an enormous privilege to have someone serving in Ukraine’s Armed Forces here with us.
Viktoriia, ласкаво просимо до Брізбена. Welcome to Brisbane.
Later today, I will sit down with Viktoriia here on stage, with an interpreter, so we can hear about her story, her service and the Ukraine she has travelled halfway around the world to represent.
We are incredibly honoured to have you with us.
I also particularly acknowledge our distinguished guests.
Now, bear with me, because this is quite a list.
But it is a list I am very proud to read.
At a time when Ukraine needs its friends more than ever, having representatives from federal, state and local government, and from across the political spectrum, standing with our community matters enormously.
So, with apologies to everyone standing in the sun while I work my way through it…
- Representing the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, Kara Cook MP, Federal Member for Bonner;
- Representing the Premier of Queensland, the Honourable David Crisafulli MP, and the Minister for Multiculturalism, the Honourable Fiona Simpson MP, Hermann Vorster MP, Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs and International Student Attraction and State Member for Burleigh;
- Representing the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Steven Miles MP, the Honourable Cameron Dick MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition;
- the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner;
- Senator Paul Scarr, Senator for Queensland;
- Charis Mullen MP, Shadow Minister for Public Works and Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs;
- Joe Kelly MP, Member for Greenslopes;
- Mark Bailey MP, Member for Miller;
- Peter Russo MP, Member for Toohey;
- Bart Mellish MP, Member for Aspley;
- Margaret Nightingale MP, Member for Inala;
- Joan Pease MP, Member for Lytton;
- Michael Berkman MP, Member for Maiwar;
- Councillor Trina Massey, Councillor for The Gabba Ward;
- and Theresa Lauf, Honorary Consul of Poland in Queensland.
I also acknowledge the many representatives of government, multicultural and community organisations joining us today.
And while she cannot be here in person, we are honoured that Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, has sent a message which we will hear shortly.
Thank you all for being here.
For more than four years, many of you have stood beside Ukraine. You have rallied with us, advocated with us, helped deliver humanitarian, defence and financial support to Ukraine, and helped displaced Ukrainians build new lives here in Queensland.
On behalf of our community, дякую. Thank you.
I also sincerely thank the sponsors who have made today’s festival possible: the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, the Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council, the Lord Mayor’s Community Fund, and Value Added Meats. Thanks as well to AC 2Pak for preparing the grounds for today.
I also acknowledge our performers, stallholders and staff.
And, most importantly, our volunteers.
Some have spent months preparing for these six hours. They have given up evenings, weekends and time with their families. Some were here before sunrise, and many will still be here long after sunset
This festival simply does not happen without them.
Please join me in thanking them.
Today, we celebrate 35 years since Ukraine restored its independence in 1991.
But the story of Ukrainian independence is much older.
For generations, Ukrainians have fought to preserve our language, our culture, our identity and our right to determine our own future. Ukrainians in the diaspora played an important role in preserving that identity through generations of occupation.
Today, once again, Ukrainians are defending those things with their lives.
Russia’s full-scale invasion is well into its fifth year. Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine is into its twelfth.
Ukrainian cities continue to be attacked. Families continue to lose loved ones. Millions have been displaced.
And yet Ukraine stands.
Ukrainians continue to build, create, laugh, sing, dance, fall in love, raise children and imagine their future.
That is why festivals like this matter.
Today isn’t simply about varenyky, dancing, music or vyshyvanky, although they are all very good reasons to be here.
Today is an act of preservation.
It says:
We are Ukrainian.
Our culture is alive.
Our identity cannot be erased.
Because this war is not only about territory.
It is an attack on Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian identity.
On Wednesday, just three days before we gathered here, a Russian FPV drone struck a public bus in Kherson, killing four civilians and injuring five.
And even that does not fully explain the horror of what is happening there.
Residents have given it a name: the human safari.
Russian drone operators have been documented pursuing individual civilians, people walking, cycling, driving their cars and simply going about their lives.
Earlier this month, the world saw footage of a drone chasing a Ukrainian man around a vehicle at a vegetable market before detonating.
Think about that.
The operator could see that this was an ordinary civilian.
And chased him anyway.
This is not collateral damage.
This is terror.
And Russia is attacking not only Ukrainian lives, but Ukrainian identity.
In July, Russian attacks destroyed around 800,000 books belonging to one Ukrainian publisher. A little over two weeks later, another attack destroyed hundreds of thousands more. Then, in August, another Ukrainian publishing warehouse was struck.
More than 1.5 million Ukrainian books burned in a matter of weeks.
Not tanks. Not missiles.
Books.
Churches, museums, libraries and historic buildings have also been damaged and destroyed.
Places that hold the memory of a people.
So when we say Russia is trying to erase Ukraine, that isn’t rhetoric.
But cultural erasure does not only happen by destroying something.
It can also happen by replacing it.
And that brings me to something that might otherwise sound harmless to an Australian audience: the growing promotion of a supposedly shared “Slavic” identity.
While Ukrainian books are being burned, Ukrainian cultural institutions bombed and Ukrainians killed, we are simultaneously being encouraged to blur the distinction between Ukrainian and Russian culture under labels like “Slavic culture”, “Slavic unity” and “Slavic brotherhood”.
First, you diminish what is distinctly Ukrainian.
Then you place what remains beneath a broader identity in which Ukrainian culture becomes merely one component of a supposedly larger, greater one, with Moscow historically placing itself at its centre.
And we are seeing “Slavic” organisations and events promoted here in Australia and globally with increasing prominence.
But look more closely at what has happened since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russian organisations and entities that were relatively quiet during the first years of the war have begun to re-emerge, rebranded, sometimes literally and sometimes figuratively, as “Slavic”.
Where organisations have not changed their names, we are increasingly seeing predominantly Russian events promoted instead under the supposedly broader and more palatable banner of “Slavic culture”.
Different organisations. Different cities. Different countries.
The same language. The same framing. The same supposed “Slavic unity”.
It’s almost as if they’ve all received the same directive from Moscow.
Think about it.
At precisely the moment Russia is attempting to erase the distinction between Ukrainian and Russian identity in Ukraine, Russian organisations abroad increasingly promote a cultural identity that asks the rest of the world to blur that very same distinction.
That is why we need to pay attention.
So let me be very clear.
Ukrainian is a Slavonic language, just as English is a Germanic language.
But a language family is not a national identity.
Speaking English does not make Australians part of a “Germanic world”, and speaking Ukrainian does not make Ukrainians part of a “Slavic world”.
We do not define ourselves as Slavic. We define ourselves as Ukrainian.
“Slavic” does not describe our nationality.
It does not define our culture.
It does not replace our history, identity or sovereignty.
It does not make Ukraine an extension of Russia.
It does not make Ukrainian culture Russian.
It does not make our histories interchangeable.
And it certainly does not give Russia ownership over Ukrainian identity.
Ukraine is Ukraine.
We are Ukrainian.
And our identity is ours.
Which is why the contrast is so sinister:
You cannot hunt Ukrainians in the streets, burn our books, bomb our culture, and then lecture us about “Slavic unity”.
You cannot attack everything that makes Ukraine distinctly Ukrainian and simultaneously ask us to disappear into a vague shared identity with the country attacking us.
That is not unity. That is erasure by another means.
And I want to say something directly to the elected representatives and community leaders here today.
When you are invited to something presented as a “Slavic” event, please look beyond the name.
Ask who is organising it.
Ask who is claiming to represent whom.
Ask whether established Ukrainian organisations have been consulted.
Ask whether the organisers’ relationships are with the Ukrainian Embassy, Ukrainian churches and Ukrainian language schools, or with equivalent Russian institutions.
And ask whether Ukrainian culture is being presented as distinctly Ukrainian, or folded into a narrative of supposed cultural unity with Russia or nostalgia for the former Soviet Union.
Because the presence of a handful of Ukrainians does not make an event representative of the Ukrainian community.
Some have friendships and family connections that predate the war. Some grew up in the Soviet Union. Some feel nostalgia for traditions from their childhood. Some simply see music, dancing and food and do not consider the political implications of the framing around them.
They are entitled to make those individual choices.
But individual participation is not community endorsement.
It does not give a Russian or Russian-speaking organisation authority to speak for Ukrainians.
And it does not make a “Slavic” organisation representative of the Ukrainian diaspora.
Thirty-five years ago, Ukrainians were asked who they were and where their future belonged.
They answered overwhelmingly.
Ukraine.
Not a Russian world.
Not somebody else’s imagined “Slavic world”.
Ukraine. Ukrainian culture. Ukrainian language. Ukrainian identity. A Ukrainian future.
And this is not simply a debate about words or cultural labels.
Just yesterday, Australian authorities announced that a dual Russian-Australian citizen had been charged with attempting intentional foreign interference, after allegedly seeking to provide information about Ukrainian military activities to people he believed were connected with Russian intelligence.
He was arrested here in Brisbane.
Those allegations will now be tested in court, and he is entitled to due process.
But the case is a sobering reminder that concerns about Russian foreign interference in Australia are not theoretical.
And foreign interference is not only about espionage.
It is also about influence.
It is about narratives.
It is about weakening trust, creating confusion and exploiting division.
Which brings me to one final thing I want to say directly to our Ukrainian community.
We need to talk about division.
We will not agree on everything.
Nor should we.
We should debate ideas, ask difficult questions and hold our leaders accountable.
But there is a difference between disagreement and misinformation.
There is a difference between asking a genuine question and continuing to repeat a grievance after the facts have been explained.
And there is a difference between disagreeing with a decision and publicly presenting speculation about people’s motives as though it were fact.
When organisations like the Ukrainian Community of Queensland Inc. or the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations are publicly attacked with serious, unsubstantiated claims, it does more than hurt the volunteers being targeted.
It damages trust in the institutions advocating every day for Ukraine and Ukrainians in this country.
And that matters because division is one of Russia’s weapons.
Russia has long understood that Ukrainians are easier to weaken when Ukrainians distrust each other and distrust their institutions.
Now, let me be equally clear.
I am not suggesting that everyone spreading misinformation or contributing to division is somehow working for Russia.
Of course they are not.
They may genuinely believe they are helping. They may genuinely believe their grievance is justified.
But all of us need to ask ourselves not only what we intend, but who benefits from what we are doing.
If we destroy trust between Ukrainians, Russia benefits.
If we undermine organisations advocating for Ukraine and Ukrainians, Russia benefits.
If we exhaust good volunteers until they walk away, Russia benefits.
And if we become so consumed with fighting one another that we stop fighting for Ukraine, Russia benefits.
Russia understands something very well.
Once distrust takes hold, ordinary people can do the rest themselves.
You don’t have to work for Moscow to do Moscow’s work for it.
Our answer has to be unity.
Not uniformity.
Not blind agreement.
Unity.
Unity around something much bigger than any person, any organisation or any disagreement.
Ukraine.
While Ukrainians like Lieutenant Savkiv give up everything to defend their country, surely those of us fortunate enough to stand safely here in Australia can find enough common purpose to defend it together.
We should never become a stronger voice against each other than we are for Ukraine.
And that brings us back to why we are gathered here today.
Thirty-five years of independence is not simply an anniversary.
Generations fought for it.
Ukrainians overwhelmingly chose it in 1991.
Ukrainians are dying to defend it today.
And wherever we live, we have a responsibility to protect it.
For those fighting in Ukraine, that can mean defending their country with their lives.
For us here in Australia, it means preserving Ukrainian culture, speaking the truth about Ukraine, advocating for Ukraine, supporting those who defend it, and making sure the next generation knows exactly who they are.
Ukrainian.
So today we remember those defending Ukraine.
Those wounded.
Those held in captivity.
Those who have lost their homes.
The children whose childhoods have been shaped by war.
And those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that the blue and yellow flag can continue to fly over a free Ukraine.
We remember them.
We honour them.
And we owe it to them not to give up.
But Independence Day is also a celebration of exactly what Russia has failed to destroy.
So today, we celebrate.
Our music.
Our food.
Our language.
Our traditions.
Our culture.
We celebrate the generations who built this Ukrainian community here in Queensland 77 years ago, and those building its future today.
We celebrate a nation that, after centuries of attempts to erase it, is still here.
And after everything Ukraine has endured, after every attempt to erase us, assimilate us, redefine us or tell us who we are allowed to be:
We are still here.
Still Ukrainian.
Still proud. Still free.
And still standing with Ukraine.
Слава Україні! x 3 [Героям слава!]
Thank you, and enjoy today’s Ukrainian Festival Brisbane.