Thank you very much, dear Alar, Mr. President!
Thank you. It is an honor for me to be here today as your guest together with the First Lady. And thank you very much for hosting our Prime Minister and the team.
Today, we have a special format of cooperation. It is a format that, in my view, is always very effective – Ukraine and the Nordic Baltic States. States that have always stood with us in a very principled, very substantive, and very friendly way. Thank you for your unwavering, strong support throughout all the years of this war for our independence and yours.
I thank Estonia and you personally for organizing our work here today: we held our bilateral meeting with Estonia, and we have already begun our conversation with Finland, Latvia, and Sweden. Further bilateral meetings with other Summit participants will follow, as well as our joint work – all NB8 countries and Ukraine. The main thing that is very important today is to prepare for the negotiations and decisions that we all expect from the summits at the European Union, G7, and NATO levels. June and July this year may determine a lot.
First: there must be clear movement in diplomacy so that Russia does not think the war can still bring it anything. Ukrainian positions on the frontline are strong. Russia is losing more than 30,000 of its soldiers killed and severely wounded every month. Our long-range impact on Russian logistics, Russian oil refining, and Russian military production is also strong. In temporarily occupied Crimea and in some Russian regions, there are already gasoline shortages, and normal communications have been unavailable for months. Russia’s budget is showing serious cracks. We need to keep up the pressure and ultimately force Russia onto the diplomatic track. The day before yesterday in the E3 format, and today in our NB8 format, and later at the EU Summit, we will be speaking precisely about this – how Europe should be part of the negotiations and when real movement in these negotiations can begin. Europe needs a real and strong voice in the negotiations and must be among those who will make decisions. America is ready to engage actively in diplomatic processes – I already discussed this yesterday with envoys of the U.S. President.
Second: air defense – and this will remain our priority as long as the war continues. Not a single day can be lost in protecting life, and today we discussed in detail with the countries that can help exactly what we need. This concerns contributions to the PURL initiative, as well as our bilateral work, including on anti-ballistic capabilities.
Third: we very much expect strong political decisions by the European Union that can and should be made already this summer. Ukraine has done everything necessary to open six clusters in the negotiations on our future membership, and it is now, at the upcoming European Union meetings, that decisions on this should be made. There are no obstacles. And it is important that this progress is made – that the clusters are opened – and that the Russians also see that Europe keeps its promises and does not give up its interests. I ask you to continue supporting sanctions and introducing new relevant packages. The European Union’s 21st sanctions package is needed.
Today, we also discussed that the Baltic Sea and the North Sea must not be a free operating space for Russia’s shadow fleet, and that any measures taken to curb the activities of Russian tankers benefit not only Ukraine but all of Europe. Please support this. Thank you once again, Mr. President. Thank you for the meeting, for this visit, for the Summit, and for your constant, strong support for Ukraine and our people.
Glory to Ukraine!
