Speeches

Many reports were delivered today by Rustem Umerov – he is constantly in touch with the American side. Ukraine is ready for meetings, for all formats of effective work. These meetings must be substantive, exactly as our teams have agreed and are working, so that everything that has been developed is really implemented for a dignified and lasting peace. And Russia must recognize that peace is necessary.

Ukraine is ready for meetings, Ukraine is ready for decisions, and we expect our partners to be able to act as effectively as possible – in Europe, in the United States, everywhere.

Now the United States, Europe, and all our partners have to understand how this discredits diplomatic talks. Every single Russian strike does.

It is crucial that this pressure targets, in particular, Russia’s tanker fleet, the entire infrastructure of Russian oil exports. This will greatly help all of us in Europe if Russian revenues are cut even deeper.

The task of Ukrainian units is to ensure a level of destruction of the occupier at which Russian losses exceed the number of reinforcements they can send to their forces each month. This is a realistic task.

For the first time in a long while, there was again a format involving the Americans and the Russians. They managed to discuss a range of primarily military issues – those concerning steps toward ending the war and real control and monitoring. There are issues that need to be prepared for the next meeting. Preliminary discussions indicated that the teams would meet again on Sunday.

I am very glad that our partners – Lithuania and Poland – support Ukraine within the European Union. And for us, this is one of the guarantees – I have said this many times: one of the security guarantees for Ukraine is membership in the European Union.

European politicians should value the fact that they represent free and independent states, rather than having to lead uprisings against empires and occupiers today. It is too early for Europe to relax while Russia’s war machine is still running, and while dictators around Europe are not weakening. They all look at Europe – at us – as prey.

Today has been full of tasks, including for our diplomatic team. Ukrainian representatives report to me almost every hour – they are currently in the UAE, where a conversation took place today involving the Ukrainian, American, and Russian delegations.

We should not degrade ourselves to secondary roles – not when we have a chance to be a great power together. We should not accept that Europe is just a "salad" of small and middle powers, seasoned with enemies of Europe. When united, we are truly invincible. And Europe can and must be a global force. Not one that reacts late, but one that defines the future.