Official website of the President of Russia

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Dear women,

March 8 is one of our favourite days. It is filled with the most heart-warming feelings.

I would like to congratulate you on International Women’s Day. I hope that your loved ones will give you heartfelt care and warmth, and that the kindness and sympathy you so generously give to your families, children, grandchildren, colleagues and friends will be returned manyfold.

We are living in a difficult time with global environmental challenges and problems, armed conflicts and the need to protect our people and country, the pandemic and the fight for the lives and health of millions of our people.

But nothing could stop our men, not even during the ordeals of the Great Patriotic War, from saying words of love to their women, and that love was their pillar of support and inspiration.

Today we are saying words of admiration and gratitude to our wives, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters and girlfriends for being so loyal, dependable and supportive in times of trials.

For its part, the state will do everything necessary to support families, which is an unconditional priority for us. Monthly government allowances have already been stipulated for pregnant women and low-income families with children aged through 7 years. In addition, allowances are paid to single parents with children aged 8 to 16 years.

I think that today we should adopt one more decision: to approve allowances for children aged 8 through 16 years in all low-income families, which we must support. This decision will come into effect on April 1, and these families will receive the first payments in May.

Dear women, your tenderness, sympathy and generosity make this world a better and kinder place, and you combine charming tenderness with incredible inner strength.

We know how many women work in hospitals, outpatient clinics and ambulances at all levels, from nurses and orderlies to chief physicians. During the past two years you have been working in extremely difficult conditions, under huge and sometimes unbearable strain, fighting selflessly to save the life and health of every single patient. I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude to you.

We have special words of respect for our women who are doing their duty in the Armed Forces of Russia. Thank you for your loyalty to the Fatherland.

I would like to address the mothers, wives, sisters and fiancées of our men and officers, who are fighting to defend Russia during the special military operation. I know that you are worried about your loved ones. You can be proud of them, just as the whole country is proud and concerned about them.

I would like to emphasise that conscripted service personnel are not and will not be taking part in the fighting. And we are not going to additionally call up reservists.

Only professional military personnel are fulfilling the tasks set to them. I am sure that they will reliably protect the security and peace of the people of Russia.

Today I would like to recall the words written by a woman whom her compatriots described as great and whom people called Mother – Empress Catherine II, whose sculpture stands here, in the Kremlin. She was not a Russian by birth, but she was proud of becoming Russian. Here is what she wrote: “I will defend my homeland with my tongue, with a pen and with a sword for as long as I live.” Today we regard the words “homeland,” “mother” and “beloved” to be of the same magnitude to us. And it will always be so.

Greetings to you on International Women’s Day.