Dear friends, dear leaders!
Thank you, António, Ursula, dear Mette, everyone here!
I’m glad to see you all, thank you for your support.
I’m speaking to you on my way to Denmark – this evening, my team and I will be in Copenhagen. And for the past few days, our soldiers have already been in Denmark. And together with Danish and other partners, they are working on a shared defense system – a system to protect against drones. And it’s not just about infrastructure – it’s a political issue as well.
Russia is trying to go further. They always begin with hybrid attacks. And first, it’s something small, then something bigger. There is always a next step. That’s why we need to act now – together and with strength. I thank all the leaders who already understand the danger and are joining forces.
We need to build up our defense capabilities, and Ukraine can truly help. No country in Europe has more experience than Ukraine in defending against drones and missiles. I believe Europe will need to build a Drone Wall sooner rather than later. Drones are becoming a main weapon – for armies and for criminal or terrorist groups, this is a fact. And another fact should be our joint readiness to defend our people and infrastructure. And the sooner we all implement the SAFE program together, the better. It can really speed up the idea of the Drone Wall. And we have to understand that the Drone Wall is not just about Ukraine, our neighbors, or the Eastern Flank. It’s not only about our borders or our region. Russian drones and Russian threats are now a real issue for all countries on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and that means for all coastal countries in Europe. That’s most of Europe. Today it’s drones, tomorrow it could be missiles, the day after – new technologies, who knows. And we all need strong protection – every country in Europe, which means all of us, together. No country can protect itself alone. It’s a big mistake – even if only a few still think this way – to say: “we don’t have a coastline” or “we are surrounded by others, so we don’t need to act together.” Today, in Europe, nothing about security is separate from the rest of Europe. And this understanding must unite us. We all need protection, so we all have to work to make the Drone Wall, and the security guarantees for Ukraine, and other defense efforts truly work. And it gives all of us a strong reason to boost and expand our defense production, to build co-production projects.
What does Russia want most of all? For Europe to be divided, to argue, to look weak. That’s what Russia is counting on. But your support for Ukraine over these years proves something else – that Europe is much stronger than many expected. And the fact that we are standing strong against Russian attacks during this war – and striking back fairly when they target our energy system – proves that Russia is not as strong as it wanted to seem. So we should not be afraid to build our own security models. Security guarantees for Ukraine, once we make them real, will become a model of security for others in Europe as well. And we are ready to be a driving force of this process together with you, dear partners. The same goes for the Drone Wall. These are all parts of something bigger – things Europe truly needs.
It’s also very important to respond to Russia directly so they feel the real price of their actions. We count on the quick approval of the 19th EU sanctions package. It’s almost ready – now only political decisions are needed. I urge you all to support it. This will also help our relations with America – and with President Trump. He wants to see that Europe is acting against Russia for this war. Strong action from Europe will strengthen the U.S. response. And it’s also crucial that Europe limits buying Russian resources – especially oil. Putting pressure on Russian oil, tankers, and the money systems behind their energy exports weakens Putin and helps improve President Trump’s view of working with Europe. So those who choose ties with Russia instead of America, are going against both – Europe and the U.S. We recently talked about this with the American team, with President Trump. And we truly hope that guys from Hungary will listen to these shared signals from all of us.
And we also talked about the frozen Russian assets, and most of them are still unused. These funds must be directed toward defense and Ukraine’s recovery. The tools are already prepared – and now they need to be implemented quickly. I also want to thank every country and every leader who supports our defense – through contributions to the PURL program, defense packages for our soldiers, and funding our weapons production. This is a big, big help. Thank you, partners. I encourage the countries not yet in PURL to join, please.
A few more quick, important points.
You can all see that we are holding back Russian forces on the ground. They had big plans for this year. They wanted to take more land. But Ukrainian soldiers are stopping them. Even in the hardest areas in Donetsk region, our men and women are standing strong, holding the line, and pushing the occupiers back. We are also striking targets deep inside Russia. And you’ve probably seen reports about big damage to their fuel facilities. Such strong actions should be supported by strong political decisions. Ukraine has finished its internal screening process for EU legislation – we did it faster than anyone else before us. We did it well. And we are fully ready to open Cluster 1 in the EU membership talks – the “Fundamentals” cluster. We need real progress on this. And I’m not only talking about Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting the enemy. Moldova has once again clearly proven its European choice. And how many more such tests do we all need? Of course, we all also support the Western Balkan countries – they too deserve to be part of our common European home. Europe has to keep its promises – just as candidate countries do their part
Thank you! Thanks everyone! Thank you for the invitation, thanks again, and we are counting on results.
Thank you!