Hi!
Dear friends, Mark, dear Mark, dear Ursula, Alex, Rob. I don’t see everybody, sorry.
Dear friends,
Thank you for your attention to us, thank you for your attention to Ukraine, to Ukrainian defense companies, and to our defense capabilities, which have truly become among the strongest in Europe and have been proven in modern war.
And what do we mean by modern war today?
War has changed fundamentally.
These are revolutionary changes in the very nature of warfare – changes as serious as those during the First World War, when machine guns began to decide the outcome of battles; or with the development of modern tank warfare, which had such a profound impact on Europe during the Second World War; or with the invention of missiles.
Today, drones and the very technology of fighting at a distance represent a revolutionary change in the technology of war.
So in Ukraine, as we defend our positions on the frontline, and do so in a fully justified war of self-defense, we are now eliminating around 30,000 Russian soldiers every month. Just imagine that scale.
In June alone, nearly 28,000 Russian soldiers were eliminated – and we have video confirmation for every single one of them. The overwhelming majority were struck by drones.
Frankly, we take no pride in this. We are saying it to show what modern war looks like – a war we did not start, but one we are forced to fight – in order to defend our country, our people, our children.
Every day, this war also sees a massive amount of enemy equipment, logistics, and military facilities destroyed. And again, we do most of it with drones.
At the same time, we are carrying out a campaign to secure the Black Sea using our naval drones.
These are not just strike platforms used to destroy Russian warships at sea.
Our naval drones have already evolved into multi-purpose platforms that can launch strikes from the sea against different targets on land and in the air.
At the same time, we are fighting in the skies on two key fronts – defending Ukraine from Russian attacks, and carrying out our long-range sanctions against Russia for this war, along with our medium-range pressure campaign across the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Thanks above all to our drones, we have established the ability to strike across the entire depth of the occupied territory.
And you see what Russia’s massive attacks look like. They are very similar to what we recently saw in the neighboring region, when Iranian forces struck their neighbors. Attack drones of different types, missiles, and a large number of ballistic missiles.
We have raised our interception rate against Russian Shahed drones to more than 90 percent. That means thousands of Russian attack drones shot down every week. And with all due respect, no other country has the capability to defend against attack drones at this scale. The reality of this war forced us to build it.
Today, we defend against hundreds and hundreds of attack drones every day and night, and thousands and thousands every week and every month.
Ukraine’s defense sector is building that capability even in the middle of a full-scale war.
We also maintain a high interception rate against cruise missiles, thanks to the way we have built our air defense – and thanks, of course, to the support of all our partners who continue to provide Ukraine with defense assistance. Thank you so much.
And I have a question for you: do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?
If we already have these capabilities, if Ukrainians already know how to fight like this, then it does make sense for these capabilities to become a part of the Alliance’s collective defense. That would make all of us stronger.
And we already see each other as reliable partners. And it would be only natural to become a part of one common security community.
The fact is that we will remain next to the source of the problem – Russia – for a long time. Ukraine in NATO is a source of extraordinary defensive capability.
In the meantime, we have completely eliminated the very idea of Russia having a strategic rear.
You know this country. For a long time, Russia believed it had a territorial advantage no one else possessed – a deep rear where it could safely keep military production, military equipment, and everything its war depends on, believing no one could reach them. We have reached them. Just yesterday, Ukrainian drones broke through Russia’s defenses and struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia. This is not an exception. It is the new reality. There is no major oil refinery left in Russia that has not been struck by Ukraine.
I want to emphasize this: unlike Putin, we are not fighting this war for pleasure or for geopolitics. Russia brought this war to Ukraine. It is killing our people. It wants to destroy our independence. We are only defending – from the first day of this war, we are defending ourselves.
We are raising the cost of this war for Russia, and by doing so, increasing the chances for peace.
We are able to do this thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians working in our very important defense sector, and the hundreds of companies producing every type of modern weapon Ukraine needs.
Today, because of this, Ukraine has the world’s largest and most advanced drone warfare capability. And we are offering this capability to our partners through the Drone Deal initiative.
I’m grateful to everyone who has already joined this initiative and to those who are joining it. Drone Deal initiative – it’s not only about buying drones, but also about co-production – fast-track access to the means of protection of critical infrastructure, air defense, and, of course, security cooperation.
I also want to thank every leader, every country, and every company cooperating with Ukraine in the defense sector.
The European Union, Türkiye, NATO countries, as well as countries such as Azerbaijan and the Gulf states, and other friends, are already our strong partners. And I hope our cooperation will provide our nations with reliable protection against threats.
The one thing we still need to do here in Europe is build a strong defense against Russia’s ballistic missiles. This is a big challenge – it’s true. This is Russia’s last major advantage.
And as we have seen from the wars in the Middle East and the Gulf, this is an issue of global importance.
I believe Europe urgently needs its own capability to produce anti-ballistic systems and the missiles they require.
We all value the Patriot system. It is an excellent system. There are others as well.
But today’s wars have shown that current Patriot production is not enough to meet the growing demand for protection against ballistic missiles. That is a fact.
And we must respond to that fact.
Those who defend life need more Patriots. We have also discussed Patriot production licenses with our American partners. I ask you to support our efforts to make this happen.
And one final point. As I said, Europe needs its own effective anti-ballistic systems and missiles. This work is already underway, and I urge all of you and all our partners to give it the attention it deserves. And this cannot wait until 2030 or beyond – Europe needs affordable, mass-produced anti-ballistic systems as soon as possible. In fact – today.
I am sure you agree with me, this is not about maximizing profits for governments or for industry. It is about providing the strongest possible protection, first of all – protection for hundreds of millions of Europeans. And that protection is needed today, not years from now.
We work on developing the Anti-Ballistic Coalition, and I hope it will deliver real, strong results.
While this work continues, please help us get more air defense missiles. This is our top priority right now.
We are capable of doing everything else ourselves. But when it comes to air defense, we need our partners’ determination.
Please let more determination and more decisions for air defense be one of the key outcomes of this NATO Summit in Ankara.
I encourage all of you, and all our NATO partners, to work closely with us, with Ukraine, to develop modern defense capabilities and protection against every type of drone threat.
Thank you to everyone who is helping us, helping protect lives. And I cannot finish without my appreciation of the position of the leaders of the countries who have clearly stated – Ukraine belongs in NATO because NATO with Ukraine is the Alliance for the future. The Alliance of today must be up to the challenges of the modern world. With Ukraine, with the strength of our defense industry and, most importantly, the resilience and experience of our people.
I am proud of our people. I am proud of Ukraine. Thanks, friends, again for the invitation.
Glory to Ukraine!
