Thank you very much, Emmanuel, Mr. President, for your invitation and for organizing this!
Keir, Mr. Prime Minister!
Friedrich, Mr. Chancellor!
Steve, Jared!
Distinguished journalists, everyone present!
First of all, thank you for our meeting. And this was one of the most representative meetings of the Coalition of the Willing – twenty-seven heads of state, the European Union, NATO, and representatives of Türkiye, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It was truly a global meeting, with an exceptionally high level of discussion.
Importantly, the Coalition now has substantive documents in place. This is not just rhetoric – there is concrete progress: a joint declaration by all Coalition countries, and a trilateral declaration by France, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. These documents exist, and they signal how seriously both Europe and the entire Coalition of the Willing are ready to work toward real security. Through these documents, we are strengthening our further legal work within countries, with parliaments, so that at the moment when diplomacy succeeds in bringing the war to an end, we will have full readiness to deploy Coalition forces. The details have been elaborated within a system of other documents. It has been determined which countries are ready to take the lead in specific elements of security guarantees – on land, in the air, at sea, and in reconstruction. It has been determined what forces are needed, how they will be managed, and at which levels command will operate. We must also establish how monitoring will function. It must be absolutely clear how the appropriate strength and size of the Ukrainian army will be sustained and financed – I addressed this separately today. We consider this a key element: our Ukrainian strength. And based on our army, all other components will function effectively. Military officials from France, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine worked in detail on force deployment, numbers, specific types of weapons, and the components of the Armed Forces required and able to operate effectively. We already have these necessary details. We understand which country is ready for what among all members of the Coalition of the Willing. I would like to thank every leader and every state that truly wishes to be part of a peaceful solution. We had very substantive discussions with the American team on monitoring to ensure there are no violations of peace. The United States is ready to work on this. This is extremely important to us. One of the most critical elements is deterrence – the tools that will prevent any new Russian aggression. And we see all of this. We have also made significant progress with the American negotiating team on the documents, and here in Paris, we’ve already held – and will hold further – separate meetings with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. We believe that we now have documents ready on security guarantees, bilateral, between Ukraine and the United States, as well as trilateral documents. We expect that signing could take place in the near future, and we are already working through these formats. God willing, we will succeed. We value the United States’ readiness to back the forces tasked with preventing any recurrence of Russian aggression. The U.S. backstop is extremely important for us. We understand the potential timing of all these processes, and we all agree that these security guarantees must be legally binding, including approval by the U.S. Congress.
Of course, there are still issues with the documents. Some points in the 20-point document require further work, the most significant being territorial issues. We discussed some ideas that may help. If the teams cannot resolve certain points, they can be escalated to leaders. Today, we will continue, and the Ukrainian team will remain for additional meetings and negotiations. I want to thank you, Emmanuel, for giving us this opportunity for our teams to meet over two days. Thank you, and my sincere thanks also to our American colleagues. But the key point is that the architecture of post-war security is practically already in place. And it is now up to our partners to push for Russia to reach the point of ending the war. Ukraine has never been an obstacle to peace – Russia was the source, the origin of this war, the source of aggression, and in this formula, it is clear who must take the key steps. I thank everyone who is helping us, who is helping to actually make everything so that we have peace. Everyone understands that the aggressor must stop for peace to work. And all instruments are working for this: from our deep strikes, sanctions, and diplomacy, which is so important. It is very important that we have also discussed our air defense, and this issue was also raised by other Coalition of the Willing leaders – this is our daily task. That is true. Ukraine needs air defense missiles, steady supplies, because Russian strikes, unfortunately, continue despite diplomacy. The strikes do not stop. Russia is not yet fully committed to diplomacy, and it is not committed only because it counts on strikes against our energy facilities, our infrastructure, peaceful cities and villages. That is why every one of our meetings addresses air defense as well. And in Mar-a-Lago, we discussed this with President Trump – I thank him very much for his understanding and support – and here in Paris, we are raising the air defense issue as well. The stronger our defense, the stronger our diplomacy will ultimately be. We are grateful to all who are ready to provide rapid assistance.
Glory to Ukraine!
