“Thank you very much!

Mr. President, Nikos, thank you for today’s visit, for the invitation and our conversation!

First of all, I want to say that we are grateful to Denmark for its chairmanship. And we respect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. We also welcome the beginning of Cyprus’ presidency. And we respect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. We are Ukraine, and we ask you to respect our territorial integrity and sovereignty.

And, dear Mr. President – Nicos, Ursulo, Antoniou, our friends, thank you for today’s meeting!

Dear Mae!

Presidents and Your Excellencies!

I am pleased to be here just as Cyprus begins its presidency of the Council of the European Union. And we all have high hopes for this presidency.

For Ukraine, this moment is indeed very significant – as well as for Cyprus, a member state that, unfortunately, remains divided, but aspires to lasting peace and has a full place in Europe. And the country, which may be smaller in size, but has an equal right to vote in European institutions. It says a lot about what Europe really is – that every nation is important and every free country in Europe deserves the right to be part of our common European home. It is thanks to this that Europe remains stable and peaceful.

Ukraine also deserves this – the right to be an equal part of our common European home. And we hope that your chairmanship will be productive and help us move forward on this path.

Nikos and I discussed this today. It is very important that Ukraine is among the priorities of the Cypriot presidency. And we are grateful for the President’s words that our goal should be the simultaneous opening of negotiation clusters during your presidency for both Ukraine and, of course, our friends – Moldova. And this is an ambitious and positive goal.

And during your presidency, we hope to see the beginning of the implementation of the 90 billion dollar support package for Ukraine – funding that will strengthen our resilience, and with it – the resilience of all of Europe. And thank you once again, Ursula, thank you, Antonio, for your support and to all European leaders for this decision, a very important decision – how to save Ukraine, which means – how to save Europe. We need a practical mechanism through which these funds will really help Ukraine. This mechanism, of course, should not cause problems, but should reduce the challenges we already face. And we are doing everything necessary from our side in the negotiation process and expect that no additional or excessive demands will be made to Ukraine.

At the same time, with the beginning of the presidency of Cyprus, the peace negotiations reached a new level of intensity. We are working very, very actively: Ukraine, our European partners and, of course, the United States and all members of our Coalition of the Willing – from Canada to Japan, from the European Union to Australia. And there is a possibility – and we sincerely hope – that this war may end during your presidency. And, of course, only under the condition that sufficient pressure will be exerted on the aggressor.

And we all understand how wars like this end – Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, against our people, our children. And when the pressure becomes strong enough to exhaust the source of war, peace ensues. This pressure is now there and the EU has a key role to play in supporting it. And I thank you for your willingness to help. Sanctions against Russia, support for Ukraine, joint strengthening of our defense – all this, of course, works for the sake of peace. And we discussed – at the EU level, within the framework of the Coalition of the Willing and our bilateral work with Cyprus – the need to strengthen sanctions. A new package is being prepared. And many steps are being taken to combat Russia’s shadow fleet, and it will work. Every dollar that Russia loses is a dollar that does not feed the aggressor.

It is vitally important that we continue to receive equal support from all parts of Europe, both for our defense and for our diplomacy. That is why your support is important to us – your recent visit to Ukraine, Mr. President, and the unity we are demonstrating now, at the beginning of Cyprus’ presidency.

This year, one of the new European initiatives, a very important one, should also prove its effectiveness – the SAFE tool. If it is successful, Europe will become stronger. And it largely depends on your presidency, Mr. President. And we hope that together with you – with Cyprus and with each country of the European Union – we will definitely be able to work fruitfully.

I wish you a very successful presidency. I sincerely hope that in these months Europe will of course become stronger and that people across our continent will feel that tomorrow can be safer, more stable and better than today. I also sincerely believe that together we can contribute to the realization of one of the most important guarantees of peace and security for our country and for the whole of Europe – Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.

Thank you very much.”