Dear Ukrainians!
Today, for almost the entire day, starting from last night, Russia has been striking Ukraine with “shaheds.” There was a massive attack during the night – both missiles and “shaheds” – and throughout the day, new waves of drones continued. More than 550 drones of various types were launched just today, a significant number of them specifically “shaheds.” The geography of this attack is extensive. Although the majority of drones were shot down – more than 500 confirmed interceptions – unfortunately, there were still hits in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, as well as in the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Kharkiv, and Dnipro regions. Sadly, people have been killed. My condolences to the families and loved ones. As of now, more than 40 people have been reported injured, including five children. All are receiving the necessary assistance. Among Russia’s targets, energy infrastructure is primary – they continue their operation to break Ukraine and our power system. Unfortunately, ordinary homes have also been hit – the centers of our cities have been attacked, including Lviv’s historic center. The buildings of St. Andrew’s Church in Lviv caught fire. The history of this church dates back to the early 17th century. Iranian “shaheds” enhanced by Russia hit a church in Lviv – this is utterly perverse, and only the likes of Putin could take pleasure in it. In Ivano-Frankivsk, a maternity hospital was damaged.
The scale of today’s attack strongly indicates that Russia has no intention of really ending this war. And if we take into account that Russia is also helping the Iranian regime to carry out strikes across the region, the conclusion becomes self-evident: without additional and strong pressure on Russia, without significant Russian losses, those in Moscow will not develop any desire to back down from the war and somehow come to terms with peace again. It is precisely pressure that is clearly lacking right now, and, on the contrary, there are signals encouraging Russia – encouraging them to continue what they have been doing for years, only increasing their aggressiveness. The fact that sanctions against Russia have been partially eased serves Russia’s interest to continue the war. The Russians will earn at least two billion dollars from the easing of sanctions in these weeks alone. This is dangerous for everyone. Precisely as a signal. As a direction. The “shahed” should by no means be the main symbol of what is happening here, in Europe, in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world. People want a normal life. And it is the task of leaders to work towards this. I am grateful to every leader, every country, every parliamentarian, and civic activist in our partner countries who will not remain silent about what is happening and who will continue helping us pressure Russia for the sake of real peace. I want to thank everyone working to develop new and effective forms of international coordination to protect ourselves collectively and to really counter both missile and drone attacks. There definitely must be more control and more coordination, so that Russia, the Iranian regime, and other similar formations cannot easily access microelectronics or other components needed to produce weapons. Europe and other parts of the world must certainly have greater production capacity and more cooperation to ensure modern and reliable air defense. This is exactly how we are working with our partners, and we are preparing the relevant agreements. The technologies of war have reached a level where air defense must be multi-component. And to be truly strong, air defense must be collaborative – when it’s not just one party, but everyone acting together to protect the skies. And I thank everyone who keeps working on diplomacy and the pursuit of worthy, coordinated responses to every challenge.
Today, our negotiating team delivered a report after returning from the United States. Unfortunately, there has been no real progress – Russia has no desire to move toward peace. But it is crucial that we in Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and other global actors do everything possible, everything necessary, to make the Russians interested in diplomacy in a real and honest way, not just to profit more from oil and buy more time for further attacks and aggression. Peace must be reliable – that is our goal, and it will be achieved. And we will respond to attacks. That is certain.
Glory to Ukraine!