Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister!
First of all, thank you for this visit, for the invitation, for the award, and for such an assessment of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.
I would also like to thank you for your support and for your kind and heartfelt attitude toward our country, our people, and our struggle for the right to live in an independent and sovereign state. The Netherlands is among the greatest defenders of life thanks to its support for Ukraine. You significantly helped us with air defense and other needs – from combat aviation to critically important political and financial support. We especially value the consistent annual assistance provided by the Netherlands to our state and its resilience. We appreciate your support for our energy sector – we agreed to work together on further protecting and developing Ukraine’s energy system, in particular decentralized energy. There is already a first draft of a joint document outlining our actions. Thank you for this level of relations, and we hope to further expand our cooperation. The key focus is, of course, security. Today, we devoted significant attention specifically to security issues.
It is important that you do not forget that Russia’s war against Ukraine and against the European way of life itself is still ongoing and still requires an adequate response. Right now in Ukraine – in our Odesa, in Kyiv, in Dnipro, in other cities and communities – people are dealing with the consequences of another Russian strike. Yesterday afternoon, evening, overnight, and this morning, there were several waves of Russian missiles and drones. Tragically, lives were lost: as of now, 17 people have been reported killed. My condolences to the families and loved ones. More than one hundred people have been injured. Assistance is being provided to all of them. And these are the consequences of just one Russian strike – one day of this war. Our fundamental task is to secure missiles for air defense and a sufficient number of air defense systems. We are working with partners virtually every day to ensure the protection of our skies. And I am grateful for your readiness to help.
Today, Ukraine proposed to the Netherlands a format for a special security partnership agreement – specifically, a bilateral format, our Drone Deal. And this is not only about drones as such, but also about the comprehensive development of all air defense capabilities: protection against missiles and drones, the development of electronic warfare, and our joint weapons production. We tasked our teams with working out all the details, and we have just signed documents to begin this work – both on the Drone Deal and on the first joint production specifically with the Netherlands.
We thank you for today’s exchange of assessments of the situation in international relations, especially in light of the war in the Middle East, which is currently affecting virtually everyone in the world. We in Europe need to engage more, coordinate more, in order to protect European interests in the face of such a global crisis. Of course, we also discussed diplomatic efforts and our political track of relations in Europe – at the level of European institutions.
It is important that we succeed in unblocking the European support package for Ukraine, which has already been approved, and that we succeed in opening the clusters. We discussed this today with the Prime Minister. It is also important to strengthen sanctions against Russia – for the war and for all the losses Russia has caused.
One more point.
Thank you for working together with us on holding Russia accountable for its aggression. The tribunal must be established. We believe in this and are working toward it. The aggressor must be held accountable. Russia must be punished for what it has done. And we believe it is just to do so. Thank you for everything. Thank you for your support! And thank you once again for the Four Freedoms Award. We will certainly defend our independence and our shared freedom.
Glory to Ukraine!
