Statement by the President of Ukraine During a Joint Press Conference with the Presidents of Lithuania and Poland

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Dear Gitanas, thank you very much for the invitation, the warm words, and the support for Ukraine. The warm words of welcome.

Dear Karol, I am also very glad to see you. Thank you for today's meeting.

I think, Gitanas, we understand that today is an important day, an important anniversary, but also - what is very important - that the three of us are together. I believe that these meetings can only strengthen the truly personal relations between our countries. I am very glad that our First Ladies are discussing specific humanitarian projects. I think all of this is very positive. Gitanas, I think you played an important role in bringing us together today; we have very warm relations. Thank you - to you, to your team, and to all Lithuanians.

I very much want us to always remain together going forward - Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Poles. And today we were also joined by representatives - as I mentioned in my speech - representatives of Belarus, of a free Belarus. This sends a very clear message to everyone: the day will come when Belarus will be with us in Europe, together with all of us. And I am confident it will be exactly as the people of Belarus deserve.

We all must be effective in working together - in defending our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, in defending our peoples - everyone in our part of Europe and everyone across Europe. We all know what is required for this. I thank Lithuania, and I thank Poland for supporting Ukraine. Thank you for supporting our energy sector and our people. Right now, this is a very painful issue - people are living through the consequences of Russian strikes with drones and missiles. Energy equipment and other assistance coming from our European friends matters. Thank you for this. Today we spoke about Ukraine's energy sector and how difficult things are for our people; we discussed how we can further support Ukrainians. We also talked about air defense and how we can strengthen Ukraine. Karol, Gitanas, and I agreed that our teams will continue working on the issues related to the SAFE and PURL initiative. These are very important programs that truly help us. By the way, the PURL initiative is already demonstrating its effectiveness. Thanks to this initiative, our European partners, our European friends can procure air defense missiles. This is extremely important for us. As for SAFE, the new European program, in my view it requires principled decisions: there must be a clear percentage allocated to cooperation and co-production with Ukraine. That is how results will be achieved - fast results.

Of course, we all need to continue working together, guided by our shared interests, to ensure that Europe's institutions are fully effective. The European Union must be a global leader. We believe this is possible, including thanks to Ukraine's experience - our wartime experience (in security terms), as well as technological and economic contributions to Europe's collective strength. Ukraine must be in the European Union. We all understand this absolutely clearly. I am very glad that our partners - Lithuania and Poland - support Ukraine within the European Union. And for us, this is one of the guarantees - I have said this many times: one of the security guarantees for Ukraine is membership in the European Union. That is precisely why we always speak about 2027. Gitanas speaks about by 2030. He is, by the way, advocating Ukraine's participation - our European membership. We count on support - particularly during Lithuania's presidency. I just want to remind everyone once again that Lithuania's presidency will be in 2027. Gitanas, don't forget about that.

We spoke about our diplomatic work with partners, first and foremost with the United States. I informed Gitanas and Karol - briefly - about the talks that took place in the UAE. I hope that the U.S. will not reduce pressure on Russia over this war for the sake of diplomacy. Europe, likewise, must be resolute and continue applying pressure - sanctions pressure on Russia. Russian tankers transporting oil, including through the Baltic Sea, must be stopped completely. Russian ambitions - and their propaganda as well - must be blocked by all of us. This is a difficult task, but it is something we must all do. Russian schemes to circumvent sanctions must be cut off. These are the minimum fundamentals required for peace to be truly achieved. And I want to thank all of you for this, friends. Thank you to everyone in Europe who is helping. My sincere thanks once again to Lithuania. My sincere thanks once again to Poland.

Glory to Ukraine!