Without All of Our Foreign Policy Work, It Would Simply Have Been Impossible to Withstand This War – Address by the President on the Occasion of Ukraine's Diplomatic Service Day

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Ruslan, Mr. Speaker!

Yuliia, Madam Prime Minister!

Andrii Ivanovych, Mr. Minister!

Dear attendees!

Dear Ukrainian diplomatic service professionals!

Everyone present!

I congratulate you on your day - Ukraine's Diplomatic Service Day - and I want to thank you for the joint work for the sake of Ukraine and our defense in this war.

Without all of our foreign policy work, it would simply have been impossible - I am confident of this - to withstand this war. These are not just words. For the first time in its long history, Ukraine has managed to unite virtually the entire world around itself. Today, there is no part of the world where our state, our people, our defense, and the heroism of Ukrainians are unknown. There is no country where it is not felt that we are fighting a just fight. And even in those states that support Russia in the war against us, against Ukraine, that help the aggressor - even there they still know and still feel that they are not on the right side of history, and that they are doing this solely for money or to preserve their anti-democratic power. We, meanwhile, have succeeded in uniting around Ukraine - truly uniting - all those in the world who genuinely value life, who value the independence of nations, all those who value the system of international rules and want the world to be a world without war.

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For the first time in Ukraine's history, support for our state is global. We have united Europe around the idea of defending our country, our independence - and thus around the right of every European nation to choose its own path in life. This unity delivers constant results both for Ukraine and for all of Europe. Europe has managed to disarm Russia's "Gazprom," and Putin can no longer blackmail Europe with energy resources and winter cold. Europe has also managed to protect itself from Russian attempts at destabilization and is genuinely safeguarding its internal democratic processes. The European Union has already imposed 19 sanctions packages against Russia, including measures targeting Russian banks and energy companies. This is depriving Putin of hundreds of billions of dollars that he would otherwise spend on war against us. Our sanctions proposals are consistently taken into account by our partners. Countries outside the European Union are also supporting this pressure - Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and others. Everyone is seeking to make their contribution to sanctions against the aggressor, because we have united hundreds of millions of people around the idea that an aggressor cannot remain unpunished.

We have also made very serious progress on Ukraine's path to membership in the European Union - we have obtained candidate status for Ukraine, and we have begun accession negotiations. And if it were not for the artificial and politicized - purely politicized - blocking of the opening of clusters for Ukraine, this result would already have been achieved as well. I am confident that we will reach this goal as well. Ukraine will certainly be a full-fledged member of the common European home.

Although many hoped that unity between America and Europe would fall apart, there is still genuine joint work between Europe and the United States - and in many ways, it is precisely us in Ukraine who are working to make this happen. And it does happen. It is Ukraine that strives to ensure that Europe is involved as an equal partner in dialogue with the United States. It is we who propose, reinvigorate, and defend all formats of European participation in dialogue with America, and we are succeeding.

For the first time in its history, Ukraine has achieved such a level of respect among partner countries that the Ukrainian issue is often the only issue that truly unites the entire political spectrum in other states. These are very different forces - forces that would not otherwise cooperate with one another - yet they come together to defend values, to defend Ukraine, to defend the European way of life, and international law. And we always help make this possible - through public diplomacy, behind-the-scenes work, formal and informal contacts.

There is hardly a day when I am not in communication with other leaders, with our partners. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Office, and everyone who can add strength to Ukraine and to our partners through foreign policy are working just as actively. I want to thank you for this commitment. Thank you.

We now have extremely significant results for the year. Ukraine has secured €90 billion in support for the next two years. This is a historic achievement - a financial security guarantee for Ukraine. We have averted a financial catastrophe, while Russian assets remain frozen in Europe. And it is entirely fair that it is Russian funds that should work for Ukraine - for our defense and for our recovery.

At the beginning of the year, there were many fears that the world - and Europe - would not get along with the new America. But we have preserved the level of relations. We have preserved critically necessary intelligence support. America continues to supply weapons to Ukraine, and in particular, the PURL initiative is operating - more than $4 billion within this initiative alone. Additional programs, including SAFE and others, are also being prepared, in which Ukraine must be a full-fledged participant.

We have increased the number of air defense systems and brought additional Patriot systems into Ukraine. We are ensuring a supply of air defense missiles. We have launched joint weapons production programs, and different partner-financing models for our domestic production are already in operation. By the way, this involves tens of billions of dollars annually. This is an absolutely concrete task - including for you - to ensure that funding for Ukrainian weapons production is sufficient for the coming year. Drones for our warriors, missiles for the Ukrainian army, equipment, electronic warfare systems, robotic platforms - all of this must be at an adequate level, in sufficient quantities, and unquestionably modern. This is not only our internal task; it is a specific foreign policy priority. Ukraine must maintain leadership in Europe in both the quality and the scale of weapons production. We must secure yet another historic result for Ukraine and organize real production of air defense systems and missiles for them in Ukraine - or together with our key neighbors. This is what will change the balance of power in our region for the better. It is an extremely difficult task, a strategic task. For the sake of Ukraine, it must be accomplished.

For the first time in its history, Ukraine has initiated the work of a coalition of more than 30 countries - the Coalition of the Willing - countries that will provide us, and thus themselves as well, with the necessary security guarantees. Europe, Canada, Japan - all together. We also have bilateral security agreements - at this point, around thirty such agreements - which provide for support in weapons, financing, political backing, and sanctions against Russian aggression. It is important to ensure that each of these agreements is implemented in practice.

For the first time in Ukraine's history, our foreign policy initiatives enjoy not occasional or sporadic support, but truly sustained, global backing - not only from Europeans, Canadians, and our other traditional partners, but also from countries of the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and other parts of the world. Ukrainian resolutions at the United Nations, as well as Ukrainian draft statements and documents in other international organizations, receive the necessary support. And we have not ceded a single international platform to Russia on any issue that is critical for Ukraine this year. I congratulate you on this! We are fighting to bring home Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. We are working to return Ukrainian prisoners - both military and civilian - and it is essential that the exchange process continues. In your contacts with partners, you must constantly keep this issue on the agenda. The same applies to all matters of justice for Ukraine: there must be a tribunal for Russian aggression; Russian war criminals must be held accountable; and there must be a clear global condemnation of Russia for this war. This is a concrete task for you. And there have already been the first successes.

It is extremely important that we are engaged in a productive, substantive negotiation process to bring this war to an end - a dialogue first and foremost with our strategic partner, the United States. This is a conversation about how to end the war and how to end it with dignity. And much depends precisely on all of us - on our Ukrainian position.

We clearly understand all the challenges. We see how Russia is trying to undermine our initiatives. But Ukraine's foreign policy remains strong and proactive, and we retain the strategic foreign policy initiative despite everything.

Thank you for ensuring that Ukraine's diplomatic infrastructure abroad is functioning - and functioning, in particular, for our citizens. Ukrainian consulates and Ukrainian embassies are providing the necessary services, and the scope of this work has been expanded.

It is important that we remain in constant contact with each of our partners at all working levels - from the highest to every level that contributes to achieving our shared, important results. I want to extend special thanks to our ambassadors in Europe and in other parts of the world who have truly strong contacts with partners; this is a significant achievement for Ukraine. We will also continue to expand our network of diplomatic missions.

We must bring this war to an end with a dignified peace - first and foremost, peace for Ukraine and for Ukrainians. We must ensure strength for Ukraine under all circumstances - weapons, finances, and political support. We must guarantee that Ukraine's resilience - including our energy sector and our social payments - receives reliable support. We must fully secure the necessary recovery for Ukraine after Russian strikes and after this war - this is a global undertaking, and partners will be just as essential in it as they are in defense. We must fully implement all existing documents on security guarantees and also achieve a historic agreement with the United States on security guarantees for Ukraine that will be ratified by the United States Congress. This is essential. This year, we reached agreements with Sweden on Gripen aircraft and with France on Rafale jets - decisions that clearly demonstrate that Ukraine is capable of breakthrough achievements. And therefore, every one of our foreign policy goals - large and small - must be fully realized. I am confident that we can do this.

I thank you for your work for Ukraine, for our shared strength. It is important that we all work as one system - the Verkhovna Rada, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister, and the Office of the President of Ukraine. This is how it must continue to be. Thank you.

Glory to Ukraine!

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