Speeches

Our contacts with the American side regarding guarantees are also ongoing – guarantees for the implementation of the arrangements reached recently and announced by the President of the United States. The prisoner exchange – 1,000 for 1,000 – is being prepared and must take place. The Americans assumed responsibility for these guarantees. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters has handed over the lists for one thousand POWs to the Russian side.

Now, on May 8, when most of the world remembers and honors the warriors of World War II – those who defeated the Nazis – one must recognize that today’s Russian Nazis are continuing their war and are still trying to bring back the same insane order that was defeated in World War II.

Ukraine was ready to ensure complete silence. But in response to this peace proposal of ours, there were only new Russian strikes and new threats from Russia.

Russia has not halted any form of its military activity. Unfortunately, it has not. Ukraine will act in kind. Depending on the situation overnight and tomorrow, we will also determine our fully justified responses. Russia has received from us a clear proposal on silence of the guns and diplomacy – and knows how to contact Ukraine or our partners in order to coordinate the details.

As long as this war continues – strong support for Ukraine must continue. Every support package matters, especially air defense. Every contribution to the PURL program matters. And we need new PURL packages this year, this May.

I received a report from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, on the work of our services that help Ukrainians in the aftermath of Russian strikes. Kherson came under brutal attack today: drones targeted civilian transport, and passenger minibuses were hit. Tragically, lives have been taken – my condolences to their families and loved ones. People have also been wounded, and all are receiving the necessary assistance.

On the contact line, infantry must be provided with the strongest possible conditions. This will also apply to financial support. I have instructed that monthly contract levels for infantry on the contact line be set at 250,000 to 400,000 hryvnias.

Defense against this threat requires all elements: countering Russian military aviation, countering their arms industry, pressuring their component base by restricting supply chains, and, of course, our drones and our missiles.

In some production areas, we currently have up to 50% surplus capacity. The export of Ukrainian weapons will become a reality. The Ukrainian military will always have the right to priority and sufficient supply – they will take what is needed, and the volume beyond that will go to export.

Russia is not slowing down its military industry – only we are reducing its pace through our Ukrainian long-range sanctions. We are also working actively with partners to ensure they use every possible method to cut off supplies of components and machine tools for weapons production in Russia. But strategically, this must be the objective – our own ballistic missile defense system.