Without all our foreign policy work, it would simply be impossible to survive this war - speech of the President on the occasion of the Day of Diplomatic Service Employees

For the first time in its long history, Ukraine was able to unite the entire world around itself. Currently, there is no such part of the world that does not know about our state, our people, our defense, and the heroism of Ukrainian men and women. There is no such country now in which we do not feel that we are fighting fairly.

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 bright side of history and that they are doing it solely for the sake of money or to preserve their anti-democratic power.

We were able to unite around Ukraine, truly unite all those in the world who really value life, who value the independence of nations, all who value the system of international rules and want the world to be a world without war. For the first time in the history of Ukraine, support for our country is global. We united Europe around the idea of ​​protecting our state, our independence, and therefore around the right of every European nation to choose its own way of life.

This association brings permanent results both for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe. Europe was able to disarm Russia's Gazprom, and Putin can no longer blackmail Europe with energy resources and winter cold. Also, Europe was able to protect itself from Russian destabilization attempts and really defends its internal democratic procedures. The European Union has already applied 19 sanctions packages against Russia, in particular against Russian banks and energy companies.

It takes hundreds of billions of dollars from Putin that he would have spent on a war against us. Our sanctions proposals are always taken into account by our partners. Countries outside the EU also support this pressure - including Norway, Switzerland, Britain, others - everyone is trying to show themselves in sanctions against the aggressor, because we have united hundreds of millions of people with the idea that the aggressor cannot go unpunished.

We have made very serious progress on the way to Ukraine's membership in the European Union - we have received a candidacy for Ukraine, we have started negotiations. And if it were not for the artificial and politicized, exclusively politicized blocking of the opening of clusters for Ukraine, such a result would already have happened. I am sure: we will achieve this goal as well. Ukraine will definitely be – and will be fully – in the common European home.

Although many hoped that the unity of America with Europe would fall apart, there is still real cooperation between Europe and the United States, and in many ways it is we in Ukraine who are working to make it happen. It is. It is Ukraine that is trying to ensure that Europe is – and is – on an equal footing with the United States. It is we who propose, activate and defend all formats of participation of Europeans in the conversation with America, and it succeeds.

For the first time in history, Ukraine has achieved such a level of respect in partner countries that the Ukrainian issue is often the only issue that really unites the entire political spectrum in other countries.

And these are very different forces, very different, which otherwise would not cooperate with each other, but for the sake of protecting values, for the sake of protecting Ukraine, for the sake of protecting the European way of life and international law, they unite, and we always help this - with public diplomacy, non-public work, formal and informal contacts. I hardly have a day without 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 our partners through foreign policy are also actively working. I want to thank you for this activity. Thank you. We now have extremely strong results for the year. Ukraine has secured 90 billion euros of support for the next two years. This historic achievement is a financial guarantee of security for Ukraine.

We averted a financial catastrophe, and at the same time, Russian assets remain blocked in Europe, and it is only fair that Russian funds should work for Ukraine - for our protection, for our recovery. There were many fears at the beginning of the year that the world and Europe would not succeed with the new America. But we maintained the level of relations. We have retained critically needed intelligence assistance.

America continues to supply weapons to Ukraine, and in particular the PURL program works - more than 4 billion dollars in this program alone. SAFE and other programs are still being prepared, in which Ukraine should be a full participant. We increased the number of air defense systems, brought additional Patriot systems to Ukraine. We provide missiles for air defense.

Programs for the joint production of weapons have begun, and various models of financing by partners of our production are already working. By the way, we are talking about tens of billions annually. This is an absolutely specific task for you in particular - to ensure that the financing of Ukrainian arms production is sufficient for the next year.

Drones for our soldiers, missiles for the Ukrainian army, equipment, EW, robotic complexes - all this must be at a sufficient level, in sufficient quantity and precisely modern. This is not only our internal task, it is a specific foreign policy priority: Ukraine must maintain its leadership in Europe in terms of the quality and volume of weapons production.

We must ensure another historic result for Ukraine and organize the real production of air defense systems and their missiles in Ukraine or together with our key neighbors. This is what will change the balance of power in our region for the better. This is an extremely difficult task, a strategic task. It should be done for the sake of Ukraine.

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, and these are the countries that will provide us, and therefore, themselves, with the necessary security guarantees. Europe, Canada, Japan - all together.

We have bilateral security agreements - at the moment there are three dozen such agreements, which provide for support with weapons, finances, political support, support with sanctions against Russian aggression. It is important to ensure that each agreement is actually executed.

For the first time in the history of Ukraine, we have the support of Ukrainian foreign policy initiatives not just sometimes, from time to time, but indeed on a permanent basis, global support - not only by Europeans, Canadians, our other traditional partners, but also by the states of the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and other parts of the world.

Ukrainian resolutions at the UN, Ukrainian projects of statements and documents in other international organizations receive the necessary support, and we have not given Russia a single international platform in any of the issues that are critical for Ukraine this year. I congratulate you! We are fighting for the return home of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia.

We are working to return Ukrainian prisoners of war, both military and civilian, and it is important that the process of exchanges continue. And you must constantly support this topic in your contacts with partners. Just like all issues of justice for Ukraine: there must be a tribunal for Russian aggression, there must be accountability for Russian war criminals, there must be a clear condemnation of Russia by the world for this war - this is your specific task.

And there are already first successes. It is very important that we are in a productive, meaningful process of negotiations to end this war, and this conversation is primarily with our strategic partner, America. A conversation about how to end the war and how to end it with dignity. And a lot depends on all of us - on our Ukrainian position. We clearly understand all the challenges. We see how Russia is trying to disrupt our initiatives.

But Ukrainian foreign policy remains strong and proactive, and we maintain a strategic foreign policy initiative despite everything. Thank you for the fact that the Ukrainian infrastructure of diplomacy abroad is working, including for our citizens of Ukraine. Ukrainian consulates and Ukrainian embassies provide the necessary services, the volume of such work has been increased.

It is important that we are constantly in touch with each of our partners at all working levels - from the highest to any that works for common results that are important to us. I want to especially thank our ambassadors in Europe and other parts of the world who have really good contacts with partners, this is a significant result for Ukraine. We will also increase the network of our diplomatic missions. We need to end this war with a decent peace, above all peace for Ukraine, for Ukrainians.

We need to provide strength for Ukraine under any circumstances - weapons, finances, political support. We need to guarantee that Ukrainian sustainability, which is both energy and our social obligations, will receive reliable support for all of this. We must fully ensure the necessary recovery for Ukraine after the Russian strikes, after this war - this is a global matter, and we will need partners in this as well as in defense.

We need to fully implement all the documents on security guarantees that already exist, and also reach a historic agreement with America on security guarantees for Ukraine, which will be ratified by the Congress of the United States of America. This is a must. This year, we reached agreements with Sweden regarding Gripens and with France regarding Rafale aircraft, and these are decisions that clearly prove that Ukraine can do groundbreaking things.