Tag: President of Ukraine

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 11 October 2022.

Dear colleagues, dear friends!

Thank you Chancellor Scholz for convening this extraordinary G7 summit and thank you to all the countries that supported this initiative and to all the leaders who are here today.

For the second day now, Ukraine has been suffering from massive Russian missile strikes. And for the 230th day – from the Russian terrorist war.

Starting from yesterday, the enemy used more than a hundred cruise missiles and dozens of different drones, including Iranian “Shaheds”. And every ten minutes I receive a message about the enemy’s use of Iranian “Shaheds”. As an example, here’s one hour of this morning:

5:01 – “Shahed” was shot down over the Black Sea.

5:11 – one more down.

5:13 – one more.

5:28 – “Shahed” again.

5:30 – one more “Shahed”.

5:36, 5:49 – two more “Shaheds”.

And it’s like that almost every hour! Plus 28 launches of Russian missiles today. And that’s just this morning. And 84 missiles yesterday.

We should all be aware that this is the enemy not only of Ukraine. It is the enemy of each of you.

It is not limited to missiles. We see sabotage against gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and against critical cables in Europe. We see an energy crisis. Food crisis and artificial threat of famine for African and Asian countries. And who does all that? Who provokes and incites that? A terrorist state. And this is Russia. Today it is so.

Russia wants to provoke chaos in Ukraine and in the entire democratic world, and therefore uses everything – from missile strikes to the seizure of a nuclear plant, threats of a radiation disaster, from sabotage against infrastructure in Europe to a deliberate attempt to destroy Ukraine’s energy facilities. Destroy all of them. We must stop all this.

I thank you for all the help already provided. It is big, it is significant. But the Russian leader, who is now in the final stage of his reign, still has room for further escalation. This possibility of his is a threat to all of us.

But we can overcome this threat. We have a formula for peace. And now, reacting to Russian terror, sham referenda and the attempt to annex our territory, we can apply the peace formula so that the terrorist state stands no chance.

The first point is defense support. Air shield for Ukraine. This is part of the security guarantees that are an element of our peace formula.

When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russian terror – missile strikes – will cease to work.

I thank Germany and Chancellor Scholz personally for speeding up the delivery of IRIS. I thank the USA and personally President Biden for the decision to provide modern missile defense and air defense systems. And we believe, Mr. President, that these will be medium and long-range systems that will allow us to create an echeloned defense system.

I thank everyone who has already helped us secure our air defense system, which allows us to neutralize some of the Russian missiles and drones. But! According to our intelligence, Russia ordered 2,400 “Shaheds” alone from Iran.

And that’s why, dear Mr. Chancellor, dear President of the United States, it is important that we have sufficient missiles for the air defense and anti-missile systems provided and that these systems are integrated with our defense system. Tomorrow in the format of Ramstein I would ask that our defense ministers discuss this.

Mr. President of France! Mr. Prime Minister of Italy! We are very much looking forward to the delivery of the SAMP-T systems. And if possible, they are needed in the coming months.

Dear friends!

Mrs. Prime Minister Truss! Prime Minister Trudeau! Prime Minister Kishida! Dear President Charles Michel! Dear Ursula von der Leyen! I am asking you to strengthen the overall effort to help financially with the creation of an air shield for Ukraine. Millions of people will be grateful to the Group of Seven for such assistance.

The second point is the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is also an element of our peace formula. And it is logically combined with the third point – with punishment, which is an integral element of any peace formula.

The one who started the armed aggression is an international criminal. He must be convicted.

The protection of the territorial integrity of Ukraine is the protection of the entire international legal order, starting from the UN Charter. Various potential aggressors in the world are now watching the reaction of democracies to the farce arranged by Russia with sham referenda and attempted annexation.

Russia must be completely isolated and punished. Punished both politically and in terms of sanctions.

I thank our European friends for the eighth sanctions package. But look – the eighth package is not a punishment for Russia. Russia has started a new stage of escalation, and therefore a new sanctions package is needed – a strong package. And I ask you to develop it!

We have to respond symmetrically at the level of the entire Group of Seven, our entire democratic world: when Russia attacks the energy sector and energy stability of our countries, we must block its energy sector with sanctions, break the stability of Russian revenues from oil and gas trade. A tough price cap is needed for the exports of oil and gas from Russia – zero profit for the terrorist state.

Such steps can bring peace closer – they will encourage the terrorist state to think about peace, about the unprofitability of war.

We must also recognize the obvious fact: there can be no dialogue with this leader of Russia, who has no future. He himself rejected the dialogue. Despite all our efforts to negotiate peace over the years! He speaks with ultimata, terror is his attitude to the world, to other people.

After the Russian strikes, all the murders, all the abuse of civilians and international law, your societies will not understand you if you do not cut off any prospects for this leader of terror.

All of us in the world should realize: talks can be either with another head of Russia – who will comply with the UN Charter, the basic principles of humanity and territorial integrity of Ukraine – or in a different configuration, so that the key terrorist does not have the opportunity to influence key decisions through terror. Now one person is blocking peace – and this person is in Moscow.

Now, while we have no opportunity for diplomacy because this Russian leader only believes in terror, we need defense support. It is on the battlefield that peace is gained. But also in the sphere of diplomacy – in our work on security guarantees for Ukraine and supplementing the existing security architecture in Europe. The Kyiv Security Compact project is a real contribution to security, it is a visionary element of the peace formula for all of us. I am asking you to support this Compact!

And one more thing.

Peace is possible not only when there is peace with one neighbor, but when there is peace with all neighbors. And I want to draw attention to one country. The territory of Belarus is already used for strikes against Ukraine. And now we see a bigger threat.

Russia is trying to directly draw Belarus into this war, playing a provocation that we are allegedly preparing an attack on this country. Indirectly it has already involved them. And now it wants to involve them directly.

Ukraine did not plan and does not plan military actions against Belarus. We are only interested in restoring our territorial integrity. But in order to completely remove this provocation, to remove these narratives by Lukashenko, to remove even the assumption of any alleged threat from us, we offer our solution.

A mission of international observers may be stationed on the border of Ukraine and Belarus to monitor the security situation. The format can be worked out by our diplomats. And I ask you at the level of the Group of Seven to support this initiative of ours.

Dear colleagues!

Now is the crucial time.

This leader of Russia, feeling the approach of his end, is trying to force the democratic world to surrender with a terrorist rush. To retreat. To lose. This can only be the desire of an insane person – more than a hundred missile strikes in less than two days against civilians, against civilian infrastructure, sham referenda, a criminal attempt at annexation… Think about it – radiation blackmail!

The terrorist must lose. He must constantly feel that there is responsibility for terror. Let’s make it happen!

I thank you for your help! I apologize for not having time to thank each country separately, each leader personally. But Ukraine knows how to be grateful, we will be grateful, we are grateful.

We bring peace together!

Glory to Ukraine!

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 10 October 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with President of the United States Joseph Biden.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed President Biden about the consequences of the massive missile strikes against civilian infrastructure perpetrated today by the Russian aggressor.

President of Ukraine underscored that recent large-scale damages of critical energy infrastructure pose serious challenges ahead of the upcoming winter and beginning of the heating season.

“Today’s strikes against civilian targets throughout Ukraine are a sign of weakness of the Russian army which is losing on the battlefield. It is pure terror. But we will not succumb to the Russian missile blackmail,” the Head of State underlined.

The two leaders discussed the importance of air defense, and continued U.S. contributions to increase this capability. In this context, they discussed the upcoming extraordinary meeting of the Group of Seven Leaders (G7) dedicated to Ukraine and most pressing measures of support for Ukraine which can be adopted by the international community.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 10 October 2022.

Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak emphasizes that Ukraine will continue to liberate its territories and approach victory in the war with Russia.

He said this while taking part in The Cipher Brief, an event dedicated to security issues, in a video conference format.

Andriy Yermak noted that the Russian Federation cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, so it resorts to terror unseen since World War II.

“Today, residential buildings were once again damaged throughout Ukraine. People rushing to work in the morning were killed simply on the sidewalks or in their cars. In Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv and many other cities.

One of the rockets destroyed a children’s playground in the capital downtown,” he said.

The Head of the Presidential Office emphasized that these large-scale acts of terrorism have no practical military purpose, and they will not affect the capacity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Their goal is to cause a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities in order to provoke another wave of migration and psychologically break Ukrainians.

“What they are doing now is a strategy of forcing negotiations on Russian terms. We will not give in, because the existence of Ukraine as a state depends on our victory,” he said.

Andriy Yermak emphasized that peace on Russian terms is unacceptable for Ukraine. He is convinced that Russia must be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, and the democratic community should continue to support Ukraine with weapons, equipment and ammunition.

Also, our state now desperately needs an effective anti-missile defense to close the Ukrainian sky as soon as possible.

Answering the questions of the former commander of the United States Central Command and ex-director of the CIA, General David Petraeus, the Head of the Office of the President emphasized that the goal for Ukraine is the full restoration of territorial integrity and sovereignty, the return of all Ukrainian territories and all people. And the victory of Ukraine will be the victory of the entire democratic world, in particular the United States of America.

“It was repeated many times that Russia should not win the war. It’s time to edit this sentence. Ukraine must win the war. Any other option will encourage Russia to repeat it,” summed up Andriy Yermak.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 10 October 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented new Governor of the National Bank Andriy Pyshnyy to the staff of the Bank.

The Head of State thanked the previous Governor of the National Bank, Kyrylo Shevchenko, and the entire team of the National Bank of Ukraine for their painstaking work on maintaining macro-financial stability in the country since the first day of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the new Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine is an experienced person in the financial and banking spheres.

“It is very important for the NBU to have an atmosphere of stability and confidence,” he emphasized.

The President noted that he counts on the productive work of a united team of the government and the National Bank, on maintaining and strengthening the current level of relations with international financial institutions.

“I expect the new Governor of the NBU, together with the government, to bring closer the signing of a new program with the International Monetary Fund,” he said.

For his part, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal emphasized that the stability of the financial front is no less important than the military front.

The head of the government reminded that Ukraine expects to receive the allocated 1.3 billion dollars in additional support in the near future. Our state is also waiting for the IMF mission and a special program for the country at war.

According to him, revitalization of the economy and activation of lending to the real sector are also important.

Andriy Pishnyy noted that his appointment to the position of the Governor of the National Bank took place in an extremely turbulent time, full of challenges and threats for our state. He thanked the President, the Parliament and the Ukrainian society for the trust and the opportunity to lead such a powerful institution as the NBU.

Among his priorities, Andriy Pyshnyy named macro-financial stability in the country, the effectiveness of macro-economic policy, constructive negotiations with international partners, and maintaining the stability of the banking system.

“Next year will not be easy. $38 billion is the total financing requirement. Its attraction is a joint matter for all government agencies. We will work on it,” he noted.

According to the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, it is extremely important to continue meaningful and constructive negotiations with international partners in order to obtain the resources that Ukraine needs today in order to endure, prevail and start a recovery program.

“The National Bank, under my lead, will implement those systemic large-scale reforms that Ukraine needs for accelerated integration into the European community. I can assure you: as soon as we see the slightest possibility of restoring this reform course, within which the National Bank has always worked, we will continue it,” added Andriy Pyshnyy.

The Governor of the NBU also emphasized that the institutionally strong and independent National Bank is an achievement and a resource of the state, which is a guarantee of Ukraine’s financial stability.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 10 October 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak met with U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Bridget Brink and Deputy Chief of Mission Christopher Smith.

Bridget Brink emphasized that the United States strongly condemns Russia’s attacks on the infrastructure facilities of Ukraine and is committed to holding Russia accountable for war crimes and atrocities committed in Ukraine.

The Ambassador noted that the US diplomatic mission continues its work in Ukraine.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 10 October 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting on restoring communications and energy supply damaged as a result of Russian missile attacks on Monday morning.

The Head of State heard the report by Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko on the damage caused to the Ukrainian infrastructure by air attacks of the Russian Federation.

Herman Halushchenko informed about the measures being taken to restore the electricity supply and the time necessary for the repair. He noted that in the vast majority of affected regions of Ukraine, light will appear by the end of the day.

At the same time, the meeting participants emphasized the importance of temporarily reducing electricity consumption during the hours of peak load on the networks – from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

In order to reduce the load on the power system and reduce the need for emergency blackouts, citizens are urged not to use the most energy-consuming appliances during the specified time, namely: electric heaters, boilers, electric stoves, microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers, electric kettles, coffee makers, irons, etc. If necessary, it is better to use these devices in the afternoon.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine accepts requests from local communities regarding the organization of powering important objects with the help of diesel generators.

According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the infrastructure ensuring mobile communications was not affected. However, interruptions due to lack of power supply were observed in some areas.

Hence, the state should facilitate the provision of mobile network operators with fuel for generators and, if possible, provide access to Starlink stations.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 7 October 2022.

Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak held a meeting with the chair of the German Bundestag’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who is in Ukraine on her second visit since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. The main topics of the negotiations were: the need for the strongest possible international reaction to Russia’s illegal attempts to annex Ukrainian territories, as well as ways to strengthen defense assistance to our state from Germany.

At the beginning of the meeting, Yermak briefed Strack-Zimmermann in detail on the situation at the front and thanked her for her decisive support of Ukraine in the conditions of Russian aggression. The Bundestag defense committee chair’s sharp condemnation of the cynical Russian farce with pseudo-referendums and attempts to join the territories of Ukraine, which are null and void from the international legal point of view and which will not have any impact on the complete restoration of the territorial integrity of our state, became important.

The parties noted the European Union’s approval of the eighth package of sanctions and agreed on the need to further increase sanction pressure on the aggressor state, as well as its complete international isolation.

The parties focused on the defense cooperation between Ukraine and Germany. Yermak expressed his gratitude to Strack-Zimmermann for a clear position in providing our country with heavy weapons by Germany, including Marder armored fighting vehicles and Leopard tanks, to strengthen the potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in resisting the full-scale Russian invasion, as well as air defense systems to defend Ukrainian skies from missile terror of Russia.

It was stated that to implement its revanchist plans in Europe and the world, Russia uses all possible tools, resorting to energy, nuclear, radiation and other forms of blackmail. The armed occupation and attempted seizure of the Zaporizhzhia NPP by Russia, which threatens a disaster of a planetary scale, was given as an example.

The parties noted the importance of proper implementation of the grain export initiative and the need to continue it despite obstacles from the Russian Federation.

There was an exchange of views regarding the planned important international legal measures, as well as Ukraine’s initiatives at the UN.

The head of the President’s Office and the chair of the Bundestag committee discussed the practical mechanisms of inter-parliamentary cooperation between Ukraine and Germany, in particular at the level of the defense committees.

Strack-Zimmermann said that more than 80% of the population in Germany supports Ukraine, and expressed her belief in maintaining such a high level of solidarity between German society and our state.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 7 October 2022.

Ukraine is counting on the support of international partners, including the expert environment, in the restoration of housing and social infrastructure destroyed due to the Russian invasion. Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko said this while speaking online at the “Ukraine During the War. Economy. Security. Energy. Recovery Prospects” conference, which took place in Warsaw (Poland).

According to him, during the 225 days of the full-scale war, 94,596 destroyed infrastructure objects were recorded in various regions of Ukraine. Of them, there are more than 25,000 objects in Kyiv region, more than 20,000 in Donetsk region, and more than 9,000 objects in Kharkiv region. In particular, more than 74,000 residential buildings were destroyed. And new targets are being added every day as Russian shelling continues.

“Unfortunately, Ukraine will not have enough financial resources to restore such a large amount of destroyed infrastructure. It will take us many years to rebuild thousands of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, energy and transport infrastructure facilities,” Tymoshenko said.

The deputy head of the President’s Office said that despite the ongoing hostilities, the state cannot delay the restoration of housing in the de-occupied territories, because people cannot spend the winter in destroyed homes.

As Tymoshenko said, for the rapid reconstruction of critical infrastructure, a Fast Recovery Plan was developed on behalf of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Head of the Office of the Head of State Andriy Yermak, which includes more than 38,000 objects with addresses.

“This is what we need to do today so that our people can return home from evacuation,” the deputy head of the President’s Office said.

According to him, currently the state budget has been used to restore more than 11,000 objects. That is, only 13% of what is needed is being repaired, because Ukraine is critically short of financial resources.

To attract financial aid from foreign governments, agencies and international organizations, a decision was made to create the Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine – a financial institution that should become a tool for transparently obtaining and effectively using international aid for the reconstruction of infrastructure in Ukraine.

As noted by Tymoshenko, the transparency of the Fund will be ensured through maximum control by the donor community, because 75% of its supervisory board will be representatives of donors. All the Fund’s managers will be appointed by donors, and all its reports will be available to public.

“We plan that the Fund will be fully launched at the end of November or the beginning of December this year,” he said.

The deputy head of the Office of the President also spoke about the operation of the electronic system for recording destructions in the country. Information in the system is updated daily.

He expressed his conviction that this electronic database will help the Reconstruction Fund in its day-to-day operational activities.

“We are very much counting on the support of our international partners, in particular the expert environment, and we will do everything in our power to return the usual peaceful life to all communities in Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 6 October 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power.

The Head of State expressed gratitude to the United States of America for the powerful support of our country in resisting Russia’s armed aggression and separately thanked Samantha Power for her work.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy highly appreciated the level of economic and defense support provided by the United States to Ukraine, and noted the recent announcement of another American security aid package in the amount of $1.1 billion, as well as the decision to allocate more than $12 billion in help in total.

“It is extremely important for us to have such an ally as the USA, which is a true leader in consolidating international support for Ukraine,” the President said.

Separately, the Head of State emphasized the importance of Samantha Power’s meeting with First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska as part of her visit to the United States in July this year, and also thanked the Agency for the allocation of $55 million to prepare Ukraine’s heat infrastructure for winter amid Russian aggression.

The interlocutors discussed the details of a number of specific programs designed to build a safe environment in our country, as well as the importance of implementing the Fast Recovery Plan of Ukraine.

“Today, our main goal is to prepare for winter, create decent living conditions for the population in the liberated territories, and restore critical infrastructure as soon as possible. There is something big and ambitious that will happen after the victory of Ukraine, and there is something that is needed now and where you can help us,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

During a meeting, the President of Ukraine presented Samantha Power with the Order of Princess Olga of the 1st degree, celebrating her significant contribution to the development of interstate cooperation and consistent and important support of our state.

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 6 October 2022.