President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people receive International Four Freedoms Award 2026
In April 2026 President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people will receive the International Four Freedoms Award. The award ceremony will take place on April 16 in Middelburg. This was announced today – January 6, 2026 – by Hugo de Jonge, chairman of the Roosevelt Foundation and King’s Commissioner in the Province of Zeeland. On this day in 1941 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt held his famous Four Freedoms speech for the American Congress.
"A fight that concerns all of us"
Since the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022 President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have relentlessly been fighting for their freedom and independence. The war is taking a terrible toll. Many tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled.
For four years - people of all ages have lived in fear and uncertainty. Cities and villages have been destroyed, and during the cold winter months, life is extremely difficult, without water, electricity or heating. Despite these harsh circumstances the Ukrainian people demonstrate enormous resilience.
The president and the Ukrainian people continue tirelessly to resist and fight for their independence. They are fighting for the security of all of Europe and are defending, with their lives what protects us all: freedom, democracy, and the rule of law over the ‘rule of the strongest’.
By awarding the International Four Freedoms Award, the board of the Roosevelt Foundation expresses its support to the Ukrainian people and president Zelensky. Chairman Hugo de Jonge: “The award expresses deep admiration and recognition for the courage, perseverance and the enormous resilience of all people in Ukraine who continue to fight for justice, freedom and democracy. It is a fight that concerns all of us.”
About the Four Freedoms Awards
For more than forty years, the Four Freedoms Awards have been presented to individuals and organizations whose lives and work demonstrate a deep commitment to the ideals proclaimed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his historic Four Freedoms speech. In this speech, Roosevelt stated that everyone, everywhere in the world, is entitled to four fundamental human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Eighty-five years on, Roosevelt’s words have lost none of their relevance or significance.
The International Four Freedoms Award has previously been presented to, among others, Kofi Annan, Angela Merkel, the Dalai Lama, Ruud Lubbers, H.R.H. Princess Juliana, Nelson Mandela, Mohamed El Baradei and Richard von Weizsäcker.
