Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dropped in on the Johns Hopkins commencement ceremony Thursday with a livestream address that went 10 minutes and was followed by a standing ovation.
"Every person eventually realizes that time is the most valuable resource on the planet — not oil, or uranium, not lithium or anything else, but time," Zelenskyy told an audience of about 10,000, The Washington Post reported.
"As a fearless champion of his nation, President Zelenskyy has shown the world what true courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds looks like," Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels said in a statement.
"Working not only on behalf of his nation, but in defense of democratic values everywhere, he has shown an incredible ability to rally his country's citizens, and through their collective action, they have rekindled hope for the rest of us in all that democracies can accomplish.
"To hear from President Zelenskyy at graduation will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Johns Hopkins students at a moment when the stakes are so high for the future of global democracy.
"I am thrilled that one of our era's great democratic leaders will reinforce for them the importance of holding fast to one's principles and meeting with fortitude and humility the challenging moments of history that they will surely face in the years ahead."
Zelenskyy accepted Daniels' invitation via letter. Daniels announced Thursday that Zelenskyy was being awarded an honorary doctorate.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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