Statement by the President of Ukraine Following the Meeting with the NATO Secretary General
Thank you very much, Mark, my dear friend!
Dear attendees, our teams, dear journalists,
Today, on the eve of Independence Day, we welcome to Ukraine our friend, our ally – an ally in many senses of the word. Mark has been helping Ukraine, helping our defense and our relations with other partners, throughout all these years, since the beginning of this war, since the start of the full-scale invasion. Both when he was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and now as NATO Secretary General. We deeply appreciate your personal support, Mark, and I am very grateful to you. And today, we discussed primarily what next joint steps of ours can bring greater security to Ukraine and all of Europe, and bring us closer to a real end to the war.
The first point is security guarantees. Together with all our partners, we have reached an important understanding with the United States of America. The United States is ready to be part of the security guarantees for Ukraine, and this is the first time we have secured such readiness. Now, practically every day, negotiations are ongoing on the specific content of the security guarantees for Ukraine – at the level of national security advisors, our military, and diplomats from all teams. Yesterday, there was a call between Ukraine, all of Europe, and the United States. Today, this work will continue. I am grateful to everyone involved in this process. Our shared goal is exactly as it is formulated in the dialogue with partners – Article 5-like guarantees, similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. These are truly effective security guarantees, and that is the outcome we must achieve: a crystal-clear architecture of which countries assist us on the ground, which are responsible for the security of our skies, which guarantee security at sea and support Ukraine. This also involves financing our army – the size and quality of the Ukrainian army that will defend Ukraine. Much of this is based on our cooperation with partners, on our cooperation with NATO, which has already been achieved. The Ukrainian army, and our defense and security infrastructure as a whole, are very strongly integrated into the Alliance’s system. There is also extensive bilateral cooperation with NATO members. We will certainly continue all practical levels of our cooperation with NATO.
The second point is weapons for Ukrainian warriors. The PURL program is already operational. Mark, thank you so much for this initiative – it is a truly powerful one. This program allows us to purchase American weapons with funds provided by our partners. It already includes $1.5 billion from our European partners, and new participants will soon join – we are grateful to each and every one of them. This enables Ukraine to procure from the United States such critically needed items as air defense systems – first and foremost, Patriots, missiles, HIMARS, and other types of weaponry. Mark, once again, thank you for organizing and coordinating this program. It is important that every month adds more funding and efficiency to the program – on average, about $1 billion per month. Mark and I discussed that it could be $1 billion per month, or perhaps around $1.5 billion – this is something we need to work on. We discussed how to engage more countries in the PURL program. Equally critical is ensuring sufficient funding for our domestic drone production programs – this was the second part of our discussion with our teams, focusing exclusively on internal production. Ukraine’s production potential is far greater than our current financial capabilities, and we are working to close this gap. Today, Mark has already seen some of our drones – different models, very effective – and they truly are weapon number one: they hold back the enemy, hold the front line, and reduce the number of Ukrainian losses. This is undoubtedly the most important thing – and it is achieved thanks to drones. The Russians are increasing their use of drones. We can see this. We have everything we need to counter this. Funding is important. In the near future, we must cover this shortfall. We have already spoken openly about this – it’s just over $6 billion – and we are counting heavily on support from our partners.
And the next point is diplomacy. We discussed the key details of our joint efforts aimed at meaningful negotiations to end the war. Mark and I consult frequently – we are constantly in touch – on how best to act, especially in the context of partnership, both our broader partnership and our joint partnership with the United States of America, with President Trump. We had, I believe, a historically important visit to Washington, to the capital. We agreed on security guarantees, which I have already mentioned. We also discussed possible formats for meetings with Russia and its ruler – both a bilateral format and a trilateral one. We have also heard about all this. It is at the leaders’ level that issues must be resolved to end the war. Right now, however, we see that the Russians are doing everything to prevent such meetings from happening. Ukraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meetings with leaders. We are ready to work as productively as possible, and we hope that our partners will help ensure at least a minimally productive position from the Russian side. They must be compelled to engage in diplomacy. Truly strong sanctions are needed if they do not agree to a diplomatic solution to this war. If they do not want to end the war, we are counting heavily on strong packages from our partners. We believe everything must be done to ensure Russia can no longer evade such meetings. We see a strong signal from the United States that they are ready to move forward. Europe and other countries within the Coalition of the Willing are also ready to help – and we are grateful for that. A solid coalition platform has been built – more than 30 countries, including Japan, Canada, and others. It is a pro-Ukrainian coalition – and it is quite large. It is important to implement all of this. It is very difficult, but it is important. That is what we are working on.
Glory to Ukraine!