I wish you health, dear Ukrainians!

I just spoke with Olga Stefanishyna, now the new Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States of America. The formal procedures are completed - today I signed a decree on the appointment of the Ambassador. I have identified key tasks for updating the work of our embassy, ​​and most importantly - to fully implement all agreements with Washington - our agreements with President Trump, primarily in the defense sector. In many ways, the long-term guarantee of Ukraine's security depends on relations with America. There are two Ukrainian proposals on the table, these are strong proposals. This is an arms agreement for Ukraine, this is an agreement on modern drones for the United States. And we are counting on rapid progress in relations. I am grateful to Oksana Markarova. Oksana represented Ukraine in Washington throughout all these years of full-scale war - a very difficult mission. And Ukraine has always been heard in the United States. I want to thank you for this work. We have already talked about further interaction, and I suggested to Oksana Markarova to continue to be in the team - to work for the sake of Ukraine.

Today, our diplomatic work continues - our Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Security and Defense Council - with partners who support the need for a format at the leaders' level - a format to end the war. The leaders' level allows us to talk about key issues - this is exactly the level we need. We all see very brazen negative signals from Moscow regarding the negotiations: the Russians are not going to fulfill what they promised, and promised to the United States of America, promised to others in the world who insist on stopping the killings and on real diplomacy. We must put pressure on. We must force Russia to take real steps. Russia must end the war that it started, which it continues. There must be an answer from them. They must be pressured to give the right answer. And it depends on America, on all those who consider this war to be really wrong. We, for our part, will be as ready as possible - with platforms that are ready to host the meeting and guarantee effective diplomacy. Yesterday, Andriy Yermak and Rustem Umerov were at meetings in Qatar, in particular on mediation. Today, there were meetings in Saudi Arabia. I thank you for the support. Tomorrow - meetings in Switzerland. On Friday - the United States of America, New York, meetings with President Trump's team. Everyone who is working on the content of security guarantees will be involved - the military, political, economic components of security guarantees. The task is to accelerate as much as possible so that this is also a lever - a lever of influence: the Russians must see how seriously the world is and how bad the consequences will be for Russia if the war continues.

Today I had a report by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Oleg Ivashchenko, in particular about sanctions. What next steps in sanctions are needed – which specific Russian legal entities should be blocked, which individuals need pressure, which schemes for circumventing sanctions are still, unfortunately, working. We will pass all this information that our foreign intelligence has to our partners, primarily from the Group of Seven. They are ready to tighten sanctions.

And one more thing.

I want to thank all the repair crews, our energy workers, utility services, rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, our police officers – everyone involved in eliminating the consequences of the Russian strikes. Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson regions – our services are responding everywhere, providing assistance everywhere. There were hits on the energy sector – both yesterday and last night. We are quickly restoring energy supply. The work is still ongoing. I thank everyone who works for our people, for our state. Thank you to all who defend Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!