Thank you very much, Friedrich.
Thank you, Germany, for the invitation.
Today, the Chancellor and I are working in four formats. The first is our bilateral track – thank you – covering all the points we discussed regarding our bilateral relations. We are very grateful to Germany for such a substantial contribution to assistance, to strengthening our state and our security, for bolstering our air defense, and for the support from the very beginning of this war. We deeply appreciate it.
Then we worked at the level of European leaders. The third track was a conversation with the President of the United States of America. And we will conclude, after the press conference, with our format on future security – the security infrastructure for our state – namely, the Coalition of the Willing.
First of all, I want to thank all our partners for supporting Ukraine. Today, we spoke with President Trump, President von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, President Stubb, President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Meloni, and the President of Poland. Since last Wednesday, there have been very intensive communications – dozens of them – among all of us: between European leaders, between Europe and the United States of America, between us and representatives of other parts of the world who seek only one thing – peace in Ukraine, peace in Europe. Today, we discussed our joint positions with the President of the United States of America. Before that, as I mentioned, there was a coordination call.
We agreed on joint principles – five principles mentioned by Friedrich. I want to thank you, Friedrich, for your leadership in this direction.
Namely: the format of negotiations – everything concerning Ukraine must be discussed exclusively with Ukraine. We need to prepare a trilateral format of talks. There must be a ceasefire – number one. There must be security guarantees – truly reliable ones. And today, by the way, President Trump voiced his support for this and the United States’ readiness to take part. Among the agreed principles is also that Russia cannot have veto power over Ukraine’s European and NATO prospects. And peace talks should be combined with proper pressure on Russia. Sanctions must be strengthened if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire in Alaska. These are effective principles. It is important that they work.
Of course, we discussed the situation on the battlefield today. I told the President of the United States of America and all our European colleagues: “Putin is bluffing.” He is trying to exert pressure ahead of the meeting in Alaska on all sectors of the Ukrainian front. Russia is attempting to portray itself as capable of occupying all of Ukraine. That is undoubtedly what they want.
Putin is also bluffing when pretending that sanctions are not important to him and ineffective. In reality, sanctions are extremely helpful and hit the Russian war economy hard. Yes, it is true that Russia has several times more weapons – including artillery, three times as much – and the like, but it also suffers three times as many losses. And that is a fact.
I told my colleagues – the President of the United States and our European friends – that Putin certainly has no intention of making peace; he wants to occupy our country. And we all truly understand this. Putin will not be able to deceive anyone. We need continued pressure for the sake of peace – through not only American sanctions, but also European ones. And together, our alliance of partners can truly stop Putin's war.
We talked about the meeting in Alaska. We hope that the central topic of the meeting will be a ceasefire – an immediate ceasefire – as the President of the United States of America has repeatedly stated. He suggested to me that after the meeting in Alaska we have a conversation to discuss all the results – if there are any – and to determine our next joint steps.
Now we will have a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing for peace and security. This is truly our goal. This is what we are working for. Thank you to everyone who helps us! Thank you again, Friedrich!
Glory to Ukraine!
