MIDDELBURG, Netherlands — In a solemn ceremony held Thursday in the Dutch city of Middelburg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted the 2025 International Four Freedoms Award, honored for the extraordinary courage and unyielding resilience of both his leadership and the Ukrainian people throughout more than two years of full-scale Russian invasion.
The award is conferred annually by the Roosevelt Foundation, established in 1982 to uphold the legacy of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, where he laid out four fundamental freedoms that all people globally ought to enjoy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
Addressing attendees at the historic New Church — the traditional venue for the awards, located in Zeeland province, the ancestral home of the Roosevelt family — foundation chair Hugo de Jonge framed the recognition as a deliberate tribute to Ukraine’s struggle. “We pay the highest tribute to the unwavering courage and enduring perseverance of the Ukrainian people and to the steadfast and resolute leadership of their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” de Jonge said. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten added particular praise for Zelenskyy’s choice to accept the honor on behalf of all Ukrainians, a decision Jetten said “speaks volumes” about the president’s commitment to his people.
Following a lengthy standing ovation from the crowd, Zelenskyy paused the proceedings to call for a moment of silence in memory of the victims of a large-scale Russian overnight missile and drone barrage that killed at least 16 civilians and wounded dozens more across multiple Ukrainian cities. “Dozens of people have been injured and, sadly, so sadly, there are also lives lost in Odesa, Kyiv, Dnipro. Just ordinary people, children, civilians, killed by Russian madness,” Zelenskyy told the gathering. He went on to urge the international community to hold all perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine accountable under international law, stressing “Do not let Russia go unpunished.”
The International Four Freedoms Award counts some of the most prominent human rights and global leaders among its past recipients, including anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, the 14th Dalai Lama, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and leading global institutions such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Thursday’s ceremony also recognized four additional recipients of individual Four Freedoms prizes: French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot received the Freedom from Fear Award; the Committee to Protect Journalists took home the Freedom of Speech Award; Chilean disability rights advocate Isidora Uribe Silva, who lives with cerebral palsy, was honored with the Freedom from Want Award for her decades-long campaigning for disability inclusion, equal human rights, and gender equality. The recipient of the Freedom of Worship Award was not named publicly, with the foundation citing unspecified security concerns for the decision.
After the award ceremony, Zelenskyy held closed-door talks with Jetten. The Netherlands has emerged as one of Ukraine’s most consistent and robust military backers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, having already supplied Kyiv with Patriot air defense systems and F-16 fighter jets. Just one day before the ceremony, Dutch Defense Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius announced a new 248 million euro ($292 million) commitment to procure drones for the Ukrainian military.
The award presentation comes during a week of intensive diplomatic travel for Zelenskyy, who has visited three other European capitals in 48 hours to shore up pledges of additional military and financial support for Ukraine’s war effort, as no new U.S.-mediated peace talks with Russia are currently scheduled. On his tour, Zelenskyy secured major new assistance packages: Germany and Ukraine finalized a 4 billion euro ($4.7 billion) defense support deal, while Norway pledged 9 billion euros in long-term civilian and military assistance, according to Ukrainian official sources.