In Denmark, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in a meeting of the heads of state and government of the Nordic-Baltic Eight.
He expressed gratitude to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen for organizing this important meeting and to President of Finland Alexander Stubb, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Siliņa, Prime Minister of Estonia Kristen Michal, and Prime Minister of Iceland Kristrún Frostadóttir for their participation.
The President emphasized that last night Russia carried out another attack on Ukraine, launching nearly 500 drones and more than 20 missiles, including ballistic ones.
“And these are now regular strikes – several times a week – and a clear signal that Russia rejects any attempt to end the war and wants to keep fighting. We have to assume this is the main Russia’s scenario now,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The leaders focused on two key topics: defense now, while Russia’s war continues, and security guarantees for the future.
In particular, they discussed investments in Ukrainian weapons production, joint projects, and the expansion of the PURL program. The President thanked Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, and Iceland for their participation in this program and urged other partners from the Nordic and Baltic countries to join.
“We also talked about boosting Ukraine’s air defense, this directly saves our lives. Together with Nordics and Baltics, we need to provide an additional Patriot system for Ukraine – this is critical, especially before winter. Russia keeps hitting our energy sector every day. We need enough capabilities to protect ourselves,” the Head of State noted.
In addition, the meeting participants aligned their positions on new sanctions against Russia and on cooperation with other partners, especially the United States.
“The Russian economy is already in bad shape, with fuel shortages especially telling. Many Russian industries are in decline. Also telling are the labor shortages and Putin’s constant humiliations before China as he tries to sell them as much raw material as possible. All this speaks for itself. Sanctions are really working,” the President emphasized.
Special and detailed attention was paid to security guarantees. Ukraine is already working on these both within the Coalition of the Willing and in bilateral formats with partners. In particular, today’s discussions addressed the potential contributions each country is ready to make.
“Now we will fill it with specifics – who does what on land, in the air, at sea, and in cyberspace. Our army is the core of this system – strong and large enough to resist Russia. This means weapons and financing, and we are working on it. We also have signals from the United States that it will provide a backstop – and this is important,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.
The parties also discussed the important role that Ukraine’s membership in the European Union will play in the overall system of security guarantees. Work is underway to open negotiating clusters with the participation of all 27 EU member states.
