Fellow Ukrainians!
Today, our negotiating team is returning after meetings in the United States with envoys of President Trump, and tomorrow morning I expect a full briefing on the documents that have been prepared. A great deal of work has been done – first and foremost on documents concerning security guarantees, as well as the 20 points of the main document – the basic framework discussed by the Ukrainian and American delegations. Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov will present their reports tomorrow. It is important that the American side be able to elicit a response from Russia – a genuine willingness by that state to focus on something other than aggression. Of course, after so many years – first of hybrid warfare and now of full-scale war – it is hard to believe that Putin is capable of living without killings and invasions. However, a reduction in the price of Russian oil, strong global sanctions, and the continuation of all other forms of pressure are precisely what will persuade even such a stubborn person. Putin wages war as long as he has the money to buy the loyalty of his inner circle and the Russian population, while at the same time paying for killings on the front line. And over the past year, much has already been done to reduce the amount of money available to the Russian war machine. I am grateful to all our warriors for the deep strikes – there are results almost every single day now. This is especially evident in deep strikes targeting Russia’s oil exports. It is good that the European Union, America, and other partners are putting pressure on Russia’s gas and oil exports. Tankers that Russia uses to finance the war and bankroll Putin’s cronies are increasingly encountering problems in key maritime areas. There will also be new global sanctions against tankers and the entire infrastructure behind such exports – companies, insurers, captains, and crews, of course. We are also preparing new sanctions packages against various individuals – not only Russian – who are working for the aggressor’s defense industry. And our sanctions proposals are always taken into account by our partners; this is one of the priorities of our foreign policy – to ensure that Ukrainian sanctions are synchronized with those of our partners. Today, I reiterated these very tasks to Ukrainian diplomats – congratulated them on their professional day and thanked everyone who is genuinely working for our foreign policy, for ensuring that Ukraine is effective in international affairs, because this is now one of the foundations of our defense. Ukraine’s strength lies in unity with the world, and we have now reached the highest level of this unity. Never before in its history has Ukraine had as much support from partners as it does today. Achieving this level was not easy, just as it is not easy to keep the world’s attention on Ukraine month after month – despite everything. We did not allow Ukraine to be forgotten; we did not allow other topics and challenges to overshadow attention to Ukraine. The societies of our partners support us – our state, our defense – and this matters; it gives us the strength to defend ourselves.
Today, I also had the honor of thanking our Ukrainian energy workers – all our heroes who overcome Russia literally every day through their work. They restore power generation. They restore power supply. They restore normal life for Ukrainians. And Ukraine truly can be proud of the professionalism of our energy workers. Thank you.
And one more thing. Today, we spoke with Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk. Among other things, I asked Ruslan, together with the members of parliament, as well as with government officials and representatives of civil society, to prepare proposals for defining new and logical approaches to holidays and special dates in our calendar. There are unfortunate calendar coincidences – and the war has introduced many such changes. When days of tragedy fall on professional holidays. Or when, dating back to Soviet times and the early years of independence, several entirely different professional holidays fall on the same day. All of this needs to be put in order. We thank everyone who will help with this. Just as the celebration of true Christmas was easily accepted on December 25, other dates should likewise be fair and appropriate. Thank you to everyone who works for our state and our people!
Glory to Ukraine!