Speeches

Putin can still sell oil, and when he does the math in dollars and euros, war still pays – it is advantageous for him to wage war. War is in his nature, it is his ideology. And all of this is a problem not only for Ukraine, not only for us, not only for our people and our children. It is a problem for everyone in Europe – and in the Western world.

Please respond to missile threat alerts. Ukrainian services and our Air Force are ready to respond – as much as our defenses allow. And a lot depends on our partners – every leader and every country in the world that has the defensive capabilities we need and can provide them to us.

Right now, all leaders – all of us in Europe, everyone in America, absolutely all our partners – need to focus and, right now, in October, provide the maximum possible protection against Russian strikes and the maximum possible support for our diplomatic capabilities.

We are reaching an important result – 15 agreements between our companies, between German and Ukrainian businesses in our industries. And this is very important. We have never had such a result between our countries even in peacetime, let alone such strong agreements during the war.

Together with the Chancellor, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche is in Kyiv today, along with a strong – a very strong – business delegation. There is a new support package for Ukraine – a comprehensive package worth more than €1.3 billion. It includes weapons that will help us now, as well as support for our energy sector, which is very important, ahead of winter – an important energy package.

This is where independence is won. And the path to peace runs through these very labyrinths, these very corridors. And when we say, “Ukraine is holding on,” this resilience begins right here at the front, in command posts like this and at every one of our positions – where Ukraine is – because Ukraine has defenders.

We are doing everything to destroy Russian military logistics, and our respective operations continue nonstop. Our warriors are degrading Russia’s strike capabilities and destroying infiltration attempts.

We are preparing new talks, including on air defense and further support for Ukraine, that will take place this week. I want to thank all our partners who are truly delivering on our agreements and supplying air defense interceptors.

This must be countered. It has been a long time since the world imposed effective sanctions on Russia – and the Lindsey Graham law, as well as EU sanctions and sanctions from around the world, can deliver that.

We already have several effective prototypes of interceptors against Russian jet-powered drones. There are teams using them in combat.