Dear Emmanuel, dear friend, dear Mr. President!
Dear attendees!
First of all, I thank you for organizing these meetings at such a high level. For our meeting yesterday and the many-hour discussion between our teams about supporting Ukraine, our steps, security guarantees, air defense, and the future of our air fleet. We discussed many issues yesterday and reached many agreements. Thank you for today’s organization, for your attention, for this special moment and very special negotiations.
Today, a meeting of the countries participating in the Coalition of the Willing took place: all of free Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. I would like to congratulate you – this was the largest meeting so far in terms of the number of participating countries. Congratulations to you on the organization. Once again, Emmanuel, I am very grateful.
Thank you also… I’d like to join Emmanuel in thanking all the leaders who were with us today in Paris: Ursula, President of the European Commission; António, President of the European Council; Alex, President of Finland; Mette, Prime Minister of Denmark; Donald, Prime Minister of Poland; Dick, Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Bart, Prime Minister of Belgium. Also at the meeting was Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy of President Trump. Many leaders and representatives of countries joined online. We thank everyone for their activity, ideas, and – most importantly – their readiness to provide support on the path to peace – now with concrete steps.
We spoke with President Trump. The day before, we held a meeting in Copenhagen in the Ukraine–Nordic–Baltic format. This is also an important format. The key topic for everyone is the same – ending the war as soon as possible through strong actions and decisions, and guaranteeing security for Ukraine. In fact, all our meetings are based on two elements: our security now – meaning support for defense and diplomacy – and long-term security guarantees – what exactly and when must be implemented.
Key points.
First. Everyone agrees that strength for Ukraine means strength for peace. That is why we are actively working to ensure our strength and resilience right now. Everyone can see that Russia rejects every peace initiative. And there is no consent to peace from Putin. There is also a very specific impression after the meetings in China, which Putin will obviously try to use as a kind of permission to continue the war. And overall, through his behavior, Putin tries to demonstrate that pressure does not affect him. But in fact, we believe the situation is fundamentally different. Pressure is working – the situation is becoming increasingly difficult for the Russian economy and for those who trade with Russia. We will continue along this line. Today, we spoke about new sanctions, including secondary sanctions and special trade tariffs that can help.
Second. The Coalition of the Willing is working very actively – the military, politicians, advisors. Significant groundwork has been laid. Our teams have worked for many days and weeks. We now understand what the foundation of real security guarantees should be. The basic framework is in place. We also understand that security guarantees are not about the future, “someday” – they also apply to the situation right now. A strong Ukrainian army is and will remain the central element of security guarantees. Therefore, it is about the capabilities of our army – financing, weapons, training, weapons production. We are providing all of this, and it must be in place a year from now, five years from now, and ten years from now – both in the current conditions of war and to guarantee security afterward, in peacetime. We already have a basis for the plan – regarding forces and specific steps. We are identifying which countries will participate in the various components of security: who will operate on the ground, who can help in the air, who at sea, and who in cyberspace. Those without their own capabilities can contribute financially. This also includes specifics regarding production. We note that European production lines are still not operating at sufficient capacity. But all of this needs to be scaled up – and it is clear how. Volumes must be greater. The pace must be faster. Ukraine itself has significant production capacity today, which is not being used due to shortages and lack of funding. This is indeed significant – almost 60% of all the weapons we use in Ukraine today are produced domestically. Ukrainians are successful at this. I believe they are of high quality. And we must help every European country be successful in one production area or another. Technological leadership is critically important for Europe – it means a healthy industry, enough jobs, sufficient investment and cooperation, and leadership in global competition. Europe must be a leader. And we are promoting this in particular as we build new security guarantees for Ukraine. We are preparing documents on guarantees and determining each country's investment in security. As Emmanuel said, 26 countries have agreed to provide Ukraine with security guarantees. And I think that today, for the first time in a long while, we have something truly concrete and serious. I congratulate all of us on this. And I congratulate you, Emmanuel, and Keir – as co-chairs of the Coalition of the Willing.
Third. It is important that America is with us. And we are working in many formats – from initiatives such as PURL, which allow the purchase of American weapons, to the United States’ readiness to participate in security guarantees long-term. Today we had a conversation with President Trump. We are grateful for the support. It was a long and detailed discussion about how to push the situation toward peace. We discussed different options. The most important thing is pressure – to force an end to the war through strong measures, including economic ones. The key to peace is depriving Russia’s war machine of money and resources. We also raised the issue of maximum protection for Ukraine’s skies. This is about saving lives. And until peace comes, Ukrainians must not be at the mercy of constant Russian attacks, Russian missiles, Iranian drones. They must not take Ukrainian lives. This is important. And it is possible. We are counting on this program. We agreed on further contacts.
Thank you, Emmanuel.
Glory to Ukraine!
