Oleksii MAKEIEV 🇺🇦

Today is a historic day. We are making history. Just like the Nuremberg tribunal 80 years ago, this Special Tribunal in The Hague will restore justice from the ruins of war.

Auf kurze, brüchige Waffenruhe folgt langer, heftiger Angriff: In Kyjiw wurden mindestens 3 Menschen getötet, weitere verletzt. Seit Mittwoch hat Russland nach ukrainischen Angaben mit über 1500 Drohnen & Dutzenden Raketen angegriffen. Das ist Terror, keine Friedensbereitschaft.

205 Ukrainians are home. Today, warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service are returning from Russian captivity. This is the first stage of the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange. Among those released are privates, sergeants, and officers. Most of them had been in Russian captivity since 2022. They defended Ukraine in Mariupol and at Azovstal, in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, and Kyiv sectors, and at the Chornobyl NPP. I thank everyone working to bring our people home – first and foremost, our warriors, who replenish Ukraine’s exchange fund, and our team. I thank all partners who help free Ukrainians from captivity. We will continue to fight for every single person who remains in captivity.

Russia's heaviest attacks on Ukraine in a long time send a clear message: Moscow is choosing escalation over negotiation. We continue to stand with Ukraine. Kyiv and its partners remain ready for talks on a just peace. Russia keeps waging war.

Despite his statements about the war coming to an end, Putin’s actions prove the opposite. Instead of accepting Ukraine’s offer to prolong the ceasefire, he prolongs the war. Overnight and throughout the day, many regions of Ukraine have come under Russian attacks. Drones targeted civilian infrastructure and residential areas from Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, and Poltava to Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Zakarpattia, and other regions. There are injured and killed civilian people. The westernmost region of Zakarpattia suffered probably the heaviest strikes of the war, with some of the Russian drones falling very close to EU and NATO borders. These ongoing attacks demonstrate that no one should take Putin’s words at their face value. Putin is a liar, and the world should pay attention to his actions, not words. The best way to bring the war to a close is to significantly increase pressure on Moscow: additional tough sanctions, support for Ukraine, increased battlefield losses, isolation, and accountability.

Right now, many may think that in modern warfare the main thing is simply to have the tools – interceptors, different types of drones, electronic warfare systems. But the reality of modern war is that military technology changes very quickly. It is not enough just to have the tools – you also need real experience using them and the same speed of adaptation as the threat itself. Right now, only Ukraine has this experience, only our soldiers do. And that is why it is important not to waste time or money, but to build joint agreements and joint results. This should also be reflected in the SAFE program, which gives Europe the opportunity to rearm now and adapt our European defense production to modern challenges. “Together” is the key word for Europe so that everyone is protected. From an intervention at the Bucharest Nine Summit. (3/5)

Today the UK has sanctioned 85 individuals and entities involved in the forced deportation, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children, alongside those driving Russia’s information warfare campaigns. In some of the toughest action to date, the UK is exposing and combatting hostile Russian activity across multiple fronts, including recent attempts to interfere in Armenian elections.

Grateful to the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union for imposing new sanctions on those responsible for stealing Ukrainian children and attempting to erase their identity through indoctrination, russification, and militarization. Meaningful contribution to the accountability track, in particular within the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. These measures target not only individuals and entities, but also the entire machinery behind the forced deportation and assimilation of Ukrainian children. This is not politics. It is about protecting children, defending human dignity, and upholding international law. Sanctions pressure must continue and intensify until every Ukrainian child returns home and all those responsible for these crimes are held accountable.

Today, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is visiting Ukraine for the seventh time. Thank you for supporting our state and for all of Germany’s assistance since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression – more than EUR 28.6 billion over this period. This is a significant strengthening of our defense. We discussed the development of joint defense production. We can already count on six projects. Ukraine’s proposal to work with Germany in the Drone Deal format is also on the table. We expect that we will be able to make this happen. We also value our agreements on strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, which were signed in April. This is important for protecting our energy infrastructure. Europe must be self-sufficient in defending against any threats, especially ballistic ones. We discussed how we can move forward in this direction. Special attention was given to the diplomatic process for achieving peace and to Europe’s place in it. A lot depends on Europe, both in the peace process and in the reconstruction of our country.