Dear Ukrainians!
Today it is important to say a few things. First: this afternoon in Kyiv, at the monument to the victims of the genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people, together with the First Lady of Ukraine, together with our diplomats, with the team of the Office of the President, with representatives of the Mejlis, we honored the memory of all who died in those terrible days of 1944. And in the years and decades that followed, when the Crimean Tatar people lived in exile. This was one of the most cruel and systemic crimes of the Soviet regime. Against people, against ordinary people who were themselves and on their land, in Crimea, and who were only able to return decades later. We remember. We honor. And what is important, we do not bow our heads, we do not surrender to the enemy now, in fact, the same enemy who came for the freedom of peoples in the 20th century and before and now wants to take away the freedom of Ukraine and all those who are close to Russia. We are defending ourselves – we are defending Ukraine, and this is not the first time that Ukrainian independence needs protection, but in our time, protection is the most effective. We are returning the Russian war of aggression home, to the only place from which the war came. And everyone sees our completely fair responses to Russian terror, to all the strikes on Ukraine, and we are increasing our responses. Once it was an event that dozens of Ukrainian drones hit Russia, and now hundreds of our long-range sanctions every day are no longer a sensation, but always pleasant news, useful news.
Today there was an intelligence report on Russian losses from our sanctions. In these months alone, minus 10% of Russian oil refining. It is also important to note that Russian oil companies are forced to stop wells. This is even more significant. The nature of Russian oil production is such that this is what they find most unpleasant. Of course, in addition to losing money. To restore production from wells, Russia needs to do much more than many other oil countries that shut down wells, even simply reacting to market fluctuations. The Russians cannot do that. Losing production is really very painful for them. And if we talk about the total Russian state revenues, thanks to our comprehensive pressure - at all levels - in five months of the year they already have a deficit much larger than they planned for the year. Putin, of course, has set aside money for the war, but certainly not so much to fight endlessly. Every strike we take in response, every step we take together with our partners, every step of pressure – all this pushes Russia to end its war. Now they already have a significant number of regions in a state of bankruptcy, and Putin is leading Russia to bankruptcy. And the various schemes they come up with to make money will not help them. We see these Russian schemes, we record them. We will break them. I am grateful to many of our friends – friends of Ukraine, friends of our intelligence – who are helping with this. I am grateful to all our soldiers and each of our weapons manufacturers for the fact that the aggressor is hurting, and for the fact that every victim in Ukraine from Russia’s strikes, from Russian state madness – every victim is not left without fair retribution. I have approved new operations for our special services and our Ukrainian Defense Forces.
One more thing.
We held a rather long, detailed meeting today – government officials, our parliamentarians – on personnel issues that need to be resolved. We need more active internal work in the state. And, in addition, there are things that need to be replaced and corrected in the diplomatic corps. We will be solving all this in the coming weeks. I want to thank everyone who is with us, who is with Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!