Speeches

Iran’s decisions to support Russia have brought massive destruction and devastating human losses to our country, and to many others. This truly must stop. And it must absolutely not be reinforced with nuclear weapons.

It is Russia that rejects peace proposals. And not just some – all of them: American, and, by the way, Chinese, European, Brazilian, African, Indian. Regardless of who says the war must be stopped, Putin doesn’t listen. It is Putin who speaks openly to the world about which cities he threatens and which nations he claims don’t exist.

Particular attention was paid to the Sumy region, to operations in the border areas. I am grateful to our units for their resilience. The Russians had various plans and intentions there – absolutely insane, as usual. We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy region.

Sanctions must be ramped up significantly. We must greatly enhance our cooperation – especially in the technological sphere – among all those around the world who are defending life. This is exactly what we agreed on with partners recently in Canada – at the G7 Summit. And we will continue discussing it next week through other formats of our cooperation in Europe, particularly within the framework of the Coalition of the Willing. 

And together, we must continue urging President Trump to use the influence he really has – to force Putin to end this war. It was the U.S. and President Trump who proposed a ceasefire, the resumption of diplomacy, immediate meetings and negotiations. But Russia has blocked every effort.

Every night, Russian strikes. Every day, we lose the lives of our people all across Ukraine – in the Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy regions – because of Russian shelling, because of this war that could have ended long ago if the world had reacted to Russia in a principled way instead of falling for its manipulation and lies.

Another exchange took place today, the fourth one already this week. It is very important: we are bringing our guys back home from Russian captivity.

Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi delivered a report – the front line, first and foremost the Pokrovsk direction, the Kursk operation, the border areas of the Sumy region. Our units in the Sumy region are gradually pushing the occupier back.

We must strengthen all the forms of defense cooperation – especially those that help us become more and more technologically advanced and use drones of every kind – in the air, on land, and at sea.

The security of Southeastern Europe and the Black Sea is indivisible. And this has been obvious to Ukraine since 2014 and became clear to the entire continent in 2022. Yet, even today, we are compelled to fight not only for our country but to ensure this reality becomes the cornerstone of a new regional policy.