President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who is on a visit to our country.
The Ukrainian Head of State noted that this was the second visit of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to Kyiv since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.
"I am very grateful to you for such attention to our nation, to all our people, to our state. And for Britain's leadership and unprecedented support for Ukraine," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing Boris Johnson during a joint statement to the media following the negotiations in Kyiv.
According to the President of Ukraine, the talks were as substantive as possible, filled with important details. Among the key issues are bilateral relations and the overall situation in Europe and the world.
"First of all, these are two important things - defense and security. We discussed in detail the current situation on the frontline, in our east, in the south of our state, our capabilities in defending Ukraine from the Russian occupiers. We have a common view on how to move towards victory. Because this is exactly the result that Ukraine needs - the victory of our state," he stressed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for understanding the armed needs of our country.
"In particular, we talked about the need to increase the supply of heavy weapons. The main thing today is to provide air defense for Ukraine as well. We started to move in this direction. Russian missiles remain a threat to our people, to the entire territory of Ukraine. The vast majority of Russian missile strikes are conducted by the Russian army against ordinary people, civilian infrastructure - housing, schools, hospitals, universities, transport. Obviously, this should be one of the priorities for all of us, for our partners - to help protect against Russian missiles. It will be a guarantee of life for people in most of our territory," the President said.
Also, according to him, during the talks the parties touched upon the results of the third meeting in the Rammstein format, where Great Britain facilitated the interests of Ukraine.
In addition, the interlocutors discussed the need of our state for financial and economic support.
"It's not just finances, we also have a fuel shortage due to the bombing of our refinery, our reserves by the Russian Federation. We also talked about a difficult issue - ensuring preparation for the heating season. I am grateful to Boris for his readiness to help our state," the President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Boris Johnson raised the issue of increasing sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation.
"I thanked Boris for his personal integrity and leadership in this direction. We also shared our suggestions. We can make sanctions tangible, so that Russia really feels that its aggression, its terrorist actions against Ukraine and against global stability will lead to losses for Russia itself - the aggressor must pay the highest price for this aggression, for this war," the President said, adding that Russia must also compensate for all the losses of people, communities and businesses.
In addition, he believes that Russia must bear responsibility for the food crisis it provoked and the food shortage on the world market, which arose due to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports.
The parties also continued to work out security guarantees for Ukraine, which can bring stability not only to our country, but also to Europe and the world.
"Of course, we have to increase our cooperation for demining the territory of Ukraine. We started a detailed discussion of this issue. And we are preparing to fill the process of rebuilding our state with practical steps. We have no doubt that we will win, so we are already preparing to rebuild the country after our victory. Again, I am thankful for the patronage over Kyiv and the Kyiv region undertaken by Great Britain," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
For his part, Boris Johnson noted the heroism of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, their courage and bravery. He expressed understanding of the impossibility of any compromise between the Ukrainian people and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Ukraine is suffering, the Ukrainian military is suffering, but there are all signs and evidence that Russian troops are under significant pressure, suffering heavy losses, and spending their weapons enormously. In 114 days of the attack on Ukraine, they have not yet achieved the objectives they’ve set for themselves for the first week," said the Prime Minister.
According to him, Great Britain wants to provide Ukraine with strategic endurance, so it will strengthen the world diplomatic coalition in support of our state and work on strengthening sanctions against the regime of Vladimir Putin.
"I understand the need to continue financial support for Ukraine, to unblock grain exports that Putin has held hostage in an attempt to deprive the world of food," said Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom assured that his country is ready to continue providing weapons to Ukraine and organizing military training for its use.
"Due to this, the Ukrainian people and the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to do what Ukrainians really want to do, namely, drive the aggressor out of Ukraine," Boris Johnson summed up.
