Volodymyr Zelensky Gives Press Conference After NATO Summit Transcript

[foreign language 00:01:21].

[foreign language 00:01:28].

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll start the press conference of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I believe there have been a lot of statements today, so we can go straight to the questions, if you have any questions. So the first question from the Ukrainian mass media, Serhii Sydorenko.

Mr. President, Serhii Sydorenko, European Truth. I have a question about NATO and our plans for membership. We can see from the statements of the foreign partners that there are conditions. You said conditions are related to security, but at the same time we can hear from some of the foreign partners that there is political conditions, political reforms. So do you have an understanding what sort of conditions are there and who will be defining those reforms or conditions? Not only the security, but the political reforms as well.

Thank you for the question. I’m not sure I will be able to provide you all the details. What is the outcome of this summit? I would say we have lot of positive outcomes. We have received a unity. The leaders have supported Ukraine and they supported the unambiguous future of Ukraine in NATO. When is this going to happen? I’m not sure. But considering the support of the leaders, considering the statements of the leaders at the NATO Ukraine council session, we have received strong support of three dozen countries. I believe that we will be in NATO when the security situation will be stabilized. And that means when the war will be finished, Ukraine will definitely be invited to NATO and Ukraine will definitely become a member nation to the alliance. I haven’t heard any other opinion today. For me it was important that the NATO declaration contained security conditions. Still, we understand that it’s all about the security.

Well, I guess that’s it. So let’s have ARD.

[inaudible 00:04:23] with ARD German TV. Yesterday you had a very strong language on what was to be in the communique, you said it is absurd what they’re going to decide. Now they decided it and today you’re very grateful, you’re very thankful. What made you change your mind and are you sometimes afraid that you could alienate the partners who spend a lot of political capital and money in order to help you? Thank you.

I haven’t changed my point of view. What’s most important is that we have common understanding on the conditions, on when and under which conditions Ukraine would be in NATO. Maybe not all the details were communicated, but for me it was very important that it depends on the security, that there is an unambiguous statements about Ukraine and NATO, so that would not be any trade-offs. That would be a political decision based on the political security situation in the world. I don’t know whether everyone is frank with me, whether it is all correct. But we believe to the partners, we have to leave with the faith in our partners that are helping us today to win in this war. And those unambiguous things, I have repeated them once in the dialogue with every leader of the G7 countries. I have repeated them and we have received the answers to the questions that we’ve posed.

(06:03)
Secondly, we have received powerful defense confirmations. They’re very important to us. And thirdly, I believe that all of that resulted in a logical point for our today’s meeting. That’s the security guarantees. That’s the declaration on the security guarantees for Ukraine. Now, what is the most important is that the security guarantees contains what’s most important is that we’ve preserved one moment in this security guarantees, that it says clearly that these are security guarantees on our way to NATO. I’m happy that we have it in the wording of the declaration and that the partner supported us.

Now, the [foreign language 00:06:56] Ukraine, please.

[foreign language 00:09:24] Ukraine. Mr. President, your colleague, the president of Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, has stated that he believes that the window of opportunities for the occupation of Ukraine with weapons will end this summer, because then the support will go weaker. After all of your meetings at summit, do can see this risk?

Today at the summit, I’ve seen the support from the United States, Germany, France, Poland. I’m not mentioning all the countries, I’m sorry for that. But I’ve heard a lot of leaders who reassured me and that means they reassured our people and our soldiers, which is even more important, that they will support Ukraine as long as it takes. But we need to understand that all of that would depend on our actions on the battlefield. This is important not only for the support of our partners, but this is something that we need in order to remain motivated so that we would know what’s our target, that we are on our way to victory.

(08:21)
We cannot just simply hold our grounds and to hope that someone would support us for decades. I understand what you’re talking about. So I wish all of us to have a success in this fight. I am confident that there should be a positive result. It’s difficult. We had a very important moment today and I try to elaborate in as much detail as possible, all the moments that might either decelerate or accelerate the processes today. You know how much mines are plotted in the area, but if you are not in Ukraine, if you’re somewhere elsewhere, it’s hard to persuade, to explain. But I think that our team today has explained all the details. Therefore, I do believe that the support will not diminish. At least that’s what the partner said.

Hello, Aleksander [foreign language 00:09:23] from Lithuania National Radio on television. First of all, Mr. President [foreign language 00:09:28], thank you for being here. We are very happy that you’re in Vilnius. My question is pretty simple. Everyone is talking about the victory of Ukraine, that Ukraine must win. What would this victory mean to you today after a year and a half of a war? Thank you.

Well, we’re not expecting for any surprises. We want to return our land. We want to return the security to our territory, to return all those people who are forced to leave abroad. And I believe that this is the victory that I’ve already mentioned, but still there has to be an accountability. Accountability is part of the justice, and justice is part of the victory. In any case, frozen conflict is not a victory, if this is something that you meant.

Now, the 24 Channel Ukraine, please.

Mr. President, before your bilateral meeting with Joe Biden, White House informed that on the agenda of the negotiations there is an issue of supplying [inaudible 00:10:52] with long range missiles. So when are we receiving the outcomes?

I don’t know. How would I put it? There’s conversations. A decision is not yet made, but it’s better not to raise this issue. There are expectations of the military, of everyone, and I think it’s important to have it at first and then to share the information how it didn’t happen.

(11:31)
We have a complicated decision and I’m very grateful for that decision to President Biden. We have started this conversation a long time ago. We’ve started conversations about cluster munitions many month ago. We talked about this. Now I’m grateful that we have a decision, because it’s not fair that Russia is using that and we don’t have weapons alike. We worked a lot on this. I’m very grateful to President Biden and his team for the result that we have received. So, just wait, not everything at once. Now Sky please. First row.

Thank you. Deborah Haynes from Sky News. The British Defense Secretary today said that he told Ukraine that the UK is not an Amazon style delivery service for weapons. Ben Wallace also had some advice for Kyiv as you keep on asking for more and more weapons and support, and that was that people want to see gratitude.

(12:47)
How do you respond to that? Do you think you’re not being grateful enough, and are you worried that you need to be careful about what you say publicly because if you complain, you could put off the public or politicians in countries like the US and elsewhere?

Well, I don’t clearly understand the questions. I believe that we were always grateful to United Kingdom. We were always grateful to the Prime Minister or to Prime Ministers and to the Minister of Defense, because the people in United Kingdom have been always supporting Ukraine. We are grateful for this.

(13:44)
I didn’t know what he meant and how else we should be grateful. Let him write me how else should I express my words of gratitude. Or we could get up in the morning and express our words of gratitude personally to the minister. Really, I don’t understand the essence of the question. We are grateful to United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is our partner.

(14:13)
Maybe the minister wants something special, but I think that we have wonderful relations. We are very grateful to the people and really, the significant support of the population. It has an impact on the decisions taken by the leadership, on the support of the leadership. Now, because of the significant support of the British people to the people of Ukraine, I think this is why we have such a tight cooperation. Our intelligence have a perfect cooperation. The Minister of Defense, we have it here. Alexi, do you have problems with your relationship with the Minister of UK? So why don’t you extend words of gratitude to him? Please, today.

(15:12)
Then the Bloomberg Agency. Could you please raise so that we could see the…

Mr. President, please tell if you have discussed the food security with the partners because the grain deal is ending very soon.

Well, thank you. There are great risks. Today at our meeting, we raised this question. The President Erdogan raised this question as well, who was saying that Turkey is supporting this mission. There are certain risks, and we discussed that with President Erdogan during my visit to Istanbul at our meeting during my visit there. It is hard and it is complicated. We need Mr. Gutierrez, Secretary General of the United Nations, to work on this issue as well, to have the proper deals with the Russian party because we never violated anything from our side. We never blocked anything.

(16:21)
We did not have a deal with Russia. We had a deal with the UN and Turkey, yeah. And the UN and Turkey had a deal with Russia. We need this corridor and it is working. Russia will do anything. I’m sure that after today’s so-called exception of security guarantees, I’m sure that they will just throw down some of the important humanitarian projects.

(16:47)
It’s obvious. Russia is always responding like that. They don’t stick to their promises and they will block those humanitarian corridors to create a new crisis. Please, Politico.

Thank you very much, President. Going back to the issue of the communique and the membership language, it appears that it was the United States and Germany that had the strongest position against talking about a timeline and a concrete path toward membership for Ukraine in the communique.

(17:29)
Why do you think Berlin and Washington took that view? And additionally, are you concerned at all that some Western capitals may be preparing for a scenario where membership could be used as a negotiating chip in a negotiation with Russia? Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Well, the most important is for you to know my personal position, our position. I am always speaking about that sincerely, and I’m sure that there won’t be a betrayal from Biden or Schultz. But still, I need to say that we will never exchange any status for any of our territories, even if it’s only one village with the population of one older man. We will never give away our territories and we will never exchange them for any frozen conflict. It will never take place, and this is my clear position, which our partners really know. Please, let us go on. VRT?

No, no. Further. Stand up please so they can see you. Thank you.

[inaudible 00:18:48] from VRT from Belgium television. Before the summit, we heard from Ukrainian sources that, let’s say Western reluctance to give Ukraine what it wants delays the Ukrainian victory. To your opinion, has this summit brought Ukrainian victory closer?

Stuck? Yes, it did. Well, very important point is the protection of our sky air defense systems as well. And it is very important now because we have little steps forward, which are still very important. I will not speak about the number of patriot systems, but it’s important that this decision has been taken. A second, connected with armed vehicles of different types, armored vehicles.

(19:46)
There is public information, which has already been mentioned, and there is nothing to hide here. Those are bushmasters and other types and solutions about armored vehicles. That is very important. And also we would like to have a breakthrough in the artillery systems. Let me say the following, we are discussing, there are some positive developments, but we so far don’t have specific decisions, but we just need time for that.

(20:17)
The power of weapon always makes the victory closer at the battlefield. Let us go on. 1+1 Channel, Ukraine. Please get up just for us to see you.

Hello, Mr. President. Natalia Fabri, TSM. Could you please tell, while we are trying to sign and to make deals about the security guarantees while we are waiting for the invitation to NATO, will Ukraine search for ad hoc situational security unions with other NATO countries?

(20:55)
How do you assess ideas of Poland, that maybe Polish soldiers could be in Ukraine after peace, and whether it is the threat for the unity of the defense alliance?

Oh, you’ve got so many questions from different parts of the world. Look, first of all, what we signed there is the main meeting and there is the declaration about security guarantees. As I mentioned, it’s an umbrella deal. Then we will have very specific and particular signed documents at the bilateral relationships. Ours and the United States, ours and Germany, ours and Japan, and with G7 and other countries which will join this declaration. And I’m sure there will be Poland and other states there, instantly four or five states said instantly that we are glad to join and I think that it would be a very substantial,

Potential serious security union of guarantees. It is serious that substantial, because these documents will be ratified in the parliaments of those states. This is the serious document, not just a Budapest memorandum. It is very serious and it will be bilateral, whoever can do. Somebody gives you F-16s, somebody gives you air defense systems, somebody doesn’t have them, but they have tanks. So those are bilateral specific deals for many years or maybe for not a long period of time if we approach NATO quicker. It is a very important point. What’s written in declaration on the way to NATO. I think it’s so important, which we finally pushed through and the partners agreed with that. It already witnesses that we are not just playing games, we really see Ukraine in the future, in the alliance and now the story is about our Polish friends. I would like to be sincere with you and honest. No one raises such issues and we are not interested and NATO countries are not interested, and we are not interested to have these or those armed troops on our territory while we are not in NATO. I think that our armed forces are enough, but the issue is in the innovative weapons of NATO, example. But as for vice versa, if we look at the opposite situation, the partners understand that we have a powerful army. And when we are in NATO than our military, our servicemen who have experience, who have military on hands experience, I’m sure they can be invited within the current legislation to provide certain security on the territory of other NATO countries. Your question, please.

Mr. Zelenskyy I’ve spent the first week of the war, who would believe that we will be here now? In the beginning of the war, you were very frustrated from the Israeli position. You hoped for Iron Dome, which you didn’t get. Meanwhile, there was humanitarian support and also alert systems against the incoming missiles. How do you feel nowadays about Israeli support? Do you expect more? Would you invite Mr. Netanyahu to visit Kiev, because I think he’s one of the Western leaders or the only Western leaders that didn’t come in the past year. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Well, first of all, Mr. Netanyahu has been invited. Secondly, I invited to other prime ministers who used to be before Mr. Netanyahu to Ukraine. So far the prime ministers are different, the result is the same. As for the Iron Dome and other, I would say our defense systems, which we wanted to get from our partners from Israel. We asked in the beginning of the war just how it used to be. The result is just the same, how it used to be with the prime ministers. The month passed, so far there is no outcome unfortunately, because Ukraine is really interested to have really preserved important historical close connections between our states. Unfortunately we don’t have any results so far. TV channel Freedom, please.

Good day. Thank you. [inaudible 00:25:58] Freedom TV channel [inaudible 00:26:00], could you please tell? How will you synchronize the today’s documents with the peace formula and the sanction policy of Kiev?

Sanctions’ policy of Kiev is being synchronized with sanctions imposed. The sanctions are done at the level of the EU countries or with other countries which are not included into the EU. And it seems to me this is the permanent work done and we have a huge number of sanctions packages and we will go on working on that. As for security guarantees, of course we will write down very specific steps about the response if there is any aggression against our state. That is about the permanent support of Ukraine. That is about the aggression, which would never take place again. It’s about not weakening of the support of our country and strengthening of our armed forces. The strengthening of the security on the land, in the sea and in the air strengthening of our financial structures, cybersecurity so on, and the sanctions’ policy, the use of sanctions procedure. Still, all of that is interconnected, because sanctions are not just imposed by someone but by certain states through, because of some of the aggressive steps of another state. Your question, please.

[inaudible 00:27:40], Mr. President, it’s an honor to have you here. Thank you very much. My question would be in addition to ending the war, of course, what would be your main political goals and expectations before the next NATO summit in Washington?

I like that you say before the summit that not only the end of the war, but what else do we plan to do till the next summit in NATO? I’m so happy because we have similar level of positive mood and it’s true, we believe in victory. We believe that there will be the next important step for Ukraine at the next NATO summit symbolically because it’ll be 75 year anniversary of the alliance in Washington. So it seems to me that we need to work a lot and to get ready to the summit. Besides that, we have one wish, victory. We don’t have any other wishes, honestly speaking.

(28:45)
Any ambitions? I don’t have any other ambitions left. I have one objective or aim, victory. And together with the victory, we’ll definitely have the NATO membership and definitely everybody understands that we will have absolute unity that Ukraine will be the EU member. So in fact it’s totally just to fair. Ukraine fought for that for this future, which is not that long to wait for. But in this reality, in this life, to become an equal member of the European Union of the Security Alliance and to be an independent state.

(29:29)
This is my goal. Dear colleagues, two more questions. We can listen to. Two more questions. Please, Ukraine’s [inaudible 00:29:38] channel, please get up to at the back there for us to see you.

Thank you. [inaudible 00:29:48]. Today, G7 leaders approved the declaration, but they did not sign it. Why wasn’t it signed and why is this declaration important?

It’s just the same as if they signed it. It’s just the form. It’s just the selected procedure. It’s just the same if they signed it.

But what will happen then?

As I told you, between those who are already mentioned in the declaration, we are already developing bilateral documents and also with the states who are joining this declaration whoever wants, of course. But we can see that there will be a very serious union. Thank you. And the last question please. In the center, the gray jacket, blue shirt, and wonderful beard, you please.

I’m Raymond [inaudible 00:30:49] Polish Daily newspaper in Lithuania. [inaudible 00:30:52]. So Poland and Lithuania are already cooperating with Ukraine regarding security, including military cooperation and having a joint unit. Now also cooperation with exportation of grain through pollution Lithuania ports. Shouldn’t this regional cooperation also include tighter cooperation in academia sphere including research and development into armaments? Thank you.

That is really our most powerful partners, our friendly neighbors who are always standing for Ukraine. Lithuania, Poland, they’re always with us and they’re always the first advocacy activists about our future membership in the EU and NATO. And it is totally understandable, because they understand us at the level of history of their own history, this threat of Russian aggression. They understand what aggression is and what it can lead to and they understand what it is to lose the probable loss of independence and identity, because they went through that, they lived through that and that is why they are our close friends.

(32:15)
There can be different programs of cooperation including the production, the manufacturing of certain defense systems. And of course we are working on cyber space and security. We are exchanging experts and apps and also we are working a lot on digitalization, which has a great impact as well. I will not tell you how, but still since the beginning of the war, it really helped us a lot. We preserved and saved the data of our state, different data from banking to any other type of data, because we have powerful digitalization in the state. Our

… our [inaudible 00:33:03] and other developments which we are sharing with our partners. Dear colleagues, we can see that there are many questions left, but we are so grateful for this interest, but unfortunately we need to finalize. Thank you so much, goodbye. [foreign language 00:33:20]. And we thank Lithuania for such reception for you as a hosting country and for such great support. We are so grateful. Goodbye.