Dear Roberta!
I am very pleased with your visit. You are always a most welcome guest, Madam President!
Dear journalists!
Today, we are truly very happy to see the President of the European Parliament visiting Ukraine – and this is already the fourth visit by Roberta Metsola to Ukraine during the war. Roberta was among the first to come to Ukraine after the invasion began. And overall, the European Parliament and Madam President herself have always consistently supported our state, our independence, our sovereignty, and, of course, our people. And I want to personally thank you for that, Roberta – for your deep attention to Ukraine. We share the same understanding of the situation today: defending Ukraine is defending Europe, and helping Ukraine is helping Europe. Russia has always regarded a united Europe with contempt. Russia never believed that Europe itself could be strong. Over these years, together with Europe’s entire team and many European leaders, we have proven that Russia was completely mistaken in its attitude toward Europe and Europeans. And it is crucial that Ukraine only adds to Europe’s unity, strength, and influence in global affairs. Now we can see how relations between Europe and the United States are being reshaped, how Europe is building its new position in global affairs. It is vital that Europe continues to remain a global actor – a global defender of freedom and human rights. We will ensure this – together, all of us. I am confident in this.
Today, Roberta and I discussed the key areas of engagement between Ukraine and the European institutions. I am grateful for the support of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations. We are fulfilling our promises, and on our part, we very much expect that the European Union and European leaders will do their part – specifically regarding the clusters. We are counting on the opening of the first cluster as soon as possible, with unanimous support from all EU member states. I also thank the European Parliament for its principled support in this regard. We also welcome the opening of the European Parliament Office in Ukraine, which will strengthen coordination between our parliaments – the Ukrainian Parliament and the European Parliament.
It is important that the European Parliament has always consistently supported sanctions against Russia for this war, and Europe’s leadership in these issues truly matters. We are looking forward to the adoption of the EU’s 19th sanctions package. And we expect that among the main targets of the sanctions will be Russian energy resources and infrastructure for trading them, but also the Russian banking sector and various circumvention schemes exploited by Russia to fund the war. We had a substantive discussion on how to make Slovakia’s and Hungary’s positions more aligned with the European stance, as they still have some energy dependence on Russia. We are also counting on corresponding sanction measures from the United States. Putin must feel that his intention to continue the war, to continue strikes, and, in particular, to transfer destabilizing activity to countries like Poland or Romania – all of this will mean pain for Russia. If Russia does not feel pain, it wages war. They must experience greater economic, political, and other losses so that we can finally move closer to peace. In this context, we also discussed Russian assets, which must be used much more effectively and promptly to support defense against Russian aggression and Ukraine’s recovery. We also spoke about undeniably important social measures for our resilience, such as the construction of shelters. Today, I discussed in detail with Roberta shelters for our schools, kindergartens, universities, shelters for people, and shelters for hospitals. We also count on Europe’s support for our program of free meals for all children in every school in Ukraine. We count on the EU’s substantive involvement in these matters. We thank everyone who is helping us!
And we greatly thank you personally, Roberta, once again!
Glory to Ukraine!
