Today we have good news from our team working on exchanges. We managed to bring home 100 defenders. 80 men and 20 women. These are soldiers, border guards, marines, national guards. By the way, defenders of Azovstal are among them.
These are a hundred families who got real joy on the eve of Easter. And, of course, we keep working to return all our people from Russian captivity. We remember everyone! And we will return everyone!
I thank everyone in our Coordination Center of the Main Intelligence Directorate. I thank everyone involved in negotiations and preparation of exchanges: Budanov’s guys, Yermak, Malyuk, Lubinets... Well done, guys!
And I am especially grateful to everyone who supports our people after release and takes care of treatment and adaptation. It is important.
We continue to expand the foreign policy capabilities of our state. Today we agreed with the Prime Minister of Iraq on the new energy of our interstate relations. I informed Mr. Prime Minister about our efforts to restore peace and integrity to Ukraine, in particular about our Peace Formula. And I am grateful for the readiness not just to look, but to actually find ways to make our cooperation stronger.
I spoke today with the Prime Minister of Greece, mainly about the existing challenges. I outlined the security situation, more broadly - our activity for the return of peace and protection of people. I thank Greece for its willingness to continue the existing cooperation and to achieve greater things together.
I met today with Richard Branson - a prominent British entrepreneur and a longtime friend of Ukraine. He has been supporting us since 2014 - both in words and with concrete work. Now he has decided to join the team of United24 ambassadors. I am grateful for that!
We discussed how the global influence of Mr. Branson can help us in our recovery, reconstruction of our educational institutions, attraction of technological assistance for Ukraine, in particular, to carry out humanitarian demining.
We also have regular steps in defense assistance to our state from Germany, I am thankful for them. Two weeks - and we’ve got reinforcement from Germany in armored vehicles, air defense, ammunition, engineering vehicles, medicine...
Everything that strengthens Ukraine's defense against Russian terror, everything that gives our soldiers more opportunities for active movement - all this protects everyone in the partner countries, everyone in Europe, everyone in the world.
The term "defeat" should become a companion to the term "aggressor", and it is only the Ukrainian victory that will ensure this.
And I thank everyone who really brings it closer. In battles for the sake of our state - in Maryinka and Bakhmut, near Avdiivka and near Kreminna, in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, in Kharkiv region and in the firmness of our entire border.
To win the battle for Ukraine is to win the battle for yourself. It should be remembered. Always. Especially by those who try to win only for themselves personally. And not on the frontline at all.
Thank you to everyone who takes care of Ukraine!
Glory to everyone who is currently in combat, on combat duty and on combat missions!
Glory to Ukraine!
