The First Priority Is Air Defense Missiles. Tomorrow We Have a Meeting Where We Will Be Discussing This – Address by the President

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Throughout the day, I received reports from Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, our government officials, and the Office on the situation in the regions. Restoration efforts, electricity, and heating were the key topics.

There are communities where the situation, unfortunately, remains extremely difficult – particularly in parts of towns and villages in the border regions. In Kyiv, repair work is still ongoing after the strike that occurred the day before yesterday. The main task is to restore energy supply to all homes. 

Nearly two hundred repair crews are also working in the Kyiv region, with active support from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. Thank you. Brovary, Vasylkiv, Fastiv, Boryspil – the situation is most difficult there. Much has been done, but a significant number of families are still without electricity. Across the entire country, Points of Invincibility have been deployed in all regions, with the involvement of the capacities of Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz, and other state companies. 

Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk regions – everywhere our energy workers are on the ground right now, along with repair crews and all municipal services that are truly working, truly doing incredible and genuinely heroic things. 

The harsh winter weather adds difficulties. That is why it is so hard. That is exactly the kind of weather the Russians are trying to exploit. I am grateful to everyone in Ukraine who – through repairs, through restoration, despite everything – is defending life.

I spoke with Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi, and first of all we discussed air defense and supplies from our partners – what is on the way, what is needed, which requests have still not been fulfilled, and what needs to be accelerated. The first priority is air defense missiles. In particular, tomorrow we have a meeting where we will be discussing this. New contributions from partners to the PURL initiative are needed, as well as deliveries from stockpiles in Europe: the missiles are there in the depots, and we know that, we know all of it – and they have to be in service with our air defenders.

Today, Rustem Umerov delivered a report on his communications with the American side. We are planning the schedule of meetings and further negotiations, and Ukraine is as constructive as possible and as fast as possible in this process. We are not dragging out time – unlike Russia. They have already dragged things out enough, to be honest. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has now lasted as long as Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union. 

Today is the one thousand four hundred eighteenth day of Russia’s war against Ukraine. They wanted to repeat – and they repeated the abuse of people, repeated fascism, repeated almost all the worst things that happened in the twentieth century. They even additionally invented warfare with “shaheds” and ballistic missiles against power plants and boiler houses.

But still, the Russians are trying to seize the same Donbas as almost four years ago. They want to lie once again that they “took” Kupyansk. They keep dying endlessly in the fields of Zaporizhzhia region. And they are still fighting against Ukraine only – with all the help from our partners, it is only our people who are holding the front. 

This speaks volumes about the system Putin has built, and about him personally. Right now, Russian losses amount to no less than 1,000 killed per day – and this has been the case since December. This is how Russia is essentially paying just to keep the war from ending.This is madness. 

And this Russian madness can only be stopped by combined forces – the forces of Europe and the United States, the forces of all our partners. Every day of this war is a reminder that the world cannot protect itself from madmen. We must protect it. Russia must be stopped. 

Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine! Thank you to everyone who helps our people, our defense, and our recovery! Thank you!

Glory to Ukraine!