Dear Ukrainians!
We had important talks, and they brought results for Ukraine. The biggest one is the package from Denmark: €645 million – specifically, a defense package. This will include more ammunition for F-16s, which shoot down Russian jet-powered “shaheds.” There will also be energy support. We discussed concrete solutions for Kherson, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kyiv, and our other cities that need support.
I thank European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and all our partners in Europe who are ready to help. There is already an energy support package for Kherson specifically – from Denmark. Thank you very much. There will be additional sanctions against Russia for this war: we discussed this with the UK.
The meetings with the President of France, the Prime Minister of Italy, the Prime Minister of the UK, and the Prime Minister of Poland were very important. I also spoke with the President of Lithuania. I want to thank European Council President António Costa for his support and very important, wise advice. We are working to achieve greater progress on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
I also want to separately thank Ireland for organizing our work in a way that allowed enough time for everything and gave everyone the opportunity to meet effectively.
We agreed with the American envoys on our next steps – we very much want these to be steps we take together with America toward peace and guaranteed security. The American side knows what can be effective in putting pressure on Russia and in providing real help to Ukraine. We count on a truly large-scale prisoner exchange, and we take very seriously the wording our American partners are using: that this should be the largest exchange of this war. More than a thousand people from each side. This is extremely sensitive for many Ukrainian families. And right now, the teams, the special services, the intelligence agencies – the Coordination Headquarters – all are working to make the exchange happen. I expect a report on the details of the preparations shortly.
Today, the Minister of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the situation with Starshield – the speed restrictions. Unfortunately, these restrictions remain in place along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. I expect the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with all the relevant agencies in America, to discuss this issue. The temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine is ours – it is our sovereign territory, and speed restrictions there send a very, very bad signal. They limit our ability to intercept jet-powered “shaheds” and counter other drones. And they also send Russia a signal that America might seemingly be willing to treat our temporarily occupied land differently. We count on the speed being restored.
And a few more important things. Today, I had a tough conversation with government officials during our coordination call. The situation in Bila Tserkva and Brovary is absolutely unacceptable – when people were left without electricity not just for hours, but for several days. At the same time, reports from the ground were giving a different picture. Problems must be solved. They must be addressed, not concealed. Today, there were also reports on the situation in Konotop and Shostka. We count on people there receiving the assistance they need. We are grateful to and proud of our energy workers, the truly heroic repair crews – absolutely – and our rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, who often, very often, restore electricity supplies even under attack. But when municipal services, individual companies in some regions, are not doing their job properly, there must be a response – and a very swift one.
And today, I also spoke with the mayors of different Ukrainian cities, from all parts of Ukraine – central, western, eastern, and our southern regions. This includes Cherkasy, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Lutsk, Rivne, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod. Together, we spoke with the Prime Minister of Ukraine. It was a very good meeting. We openly discussed all the challenges we face and those that may lie ahead. We determined how we will respond at the central level and at the regional and local levels. Energy, the protection of our skies, internal security challenges. The main thing is to work together and deliver real results for Ukrainian society and real results for our state. I thank everyone who works this way. Thank you.
Glory to Ukraine!