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| A delegation of Ukrainian government officials held a press briefing at their embassy in Washington, D.C. to discuss the war between Ukraine and Russia and Ukraine's defense strategy. | ||
| It's an hour and 10 minutes. | ||
| Hello, everybody, dear friends. | ||
| And it's a big pleasure to be with you today. | ||
| And we decided to meet with you in the end of our very productive two days in DC. | ||
| But, you know, we think that it's very important, especially now after three years, more than three years of this terrible war, Russia against Ukraine, that our American friends, the media, know the truth, know exactly what happened in front line, what happened in Ukraine now. | ||
| And this is the main goal of our briefing today. | ||
| I try to be very short and started to inform you about the last things which happened in the peace process. | ||
| You know that not Ukraine started this war, but not more than Ukrainians want to end this war and to achieve a just and lasting peace. | ||
| For us, it's very important how to end this war. | ||
| And starting the negotiations in Jeda between Ukraine and the American delegations, we immediately accepted our president, our delegation, the proposal of American delegation President Trump for the full unconditional ceasefire as a first step of the end of this war. | ||
| Unfortunately, from that period, we didn't see any political will from Russian side to really go as an absolutely logical and very simple step, because it's impossible to talk about peace when you are living under the attack of missiles and drones. | ||
| Afterwards, technical negotiation in the technical level in Ariad, also very successful, and already two rounds of the meetings in Istanbul. | ||
| You know that after the first round of Istanbul, then President Putin proposed to start direct negotiations and President Zelensky accepted and he was in the exact date. | ||
| He was in Turkey, but we didn't see there President Putin. | ||
| President Zelensky decided to send the delegations and all of us we are coming to Istanbul. | ||
| In the morning we have meeting with our American colleagues, the Secretary of State, the Special Envoy, General Kellek. | ||
| But it was a big surprise that before half an hour, one hour, we get the information that Russian delegations want to see Americans in the room of this conversation, which is not acceptable for us because we don't understand how it's possible. | ||
| We are very appreciated that what doing the President Trump, what doing the United States just that this conversation had started. | ||
| But in any way it's happened, the Russian delegations committed that we decided it was good because we have the opportunity to exchange of the one thousand of the prisoners of war. | ||
| Unfortunately, you can't imagine in what conditions we take our heroes, these people, back and they what they explain, they honestly back for the absolutely unhuman conditions. | ||
| Many of them lost as minimum forty kilograms. | ||
| And it's terrible to saw how look the young people. | ||
| It's impossible to talk about any international law just during the war. | ||
| Russia committed after this meeting that they send to us some memo about the conditions of unconditional ceasefire. | ||
| It just sounds unlogical. | ||
| Two weeks, world waiting for such documents. | ||
| Just before this meeting, second round in Istanbul, nobody can see these documents. | ||
| We received it during this second round, but after two hours, Russians leaked these documents in the Russian media. | ||
| I'm sure that you have the opportunity to saw these documents. | ||
| It's absolutely new version of the capitulations and ultimatum to Ukraine. | ||
| And my deputy of the office, Mr. Igor Brusila, later give you the more deep analysis, juridical analysis of these documents. | ||
| But what is demonstrated? | ||
| It demonstrated that Russia not have the able and not have the political will to really go for the end of this war. | ||
| And if you saw the statements of Dmitry Medvedev and other officials, they just openly said that they don't see as these negotiations and the is a as a way to the peace. | ||
| They saw as a some imitation of the peace process. | ||
| They still want to occupy whole Ukraine, but not able. | ||
| And later you can heard from our military exactly situations in the front line. | ||
| I think that it's very important now to start to speak with Russia in the languages of strength, because it's one language which this country understand. | ||
| It's not mean that Ukraine closed the door to continue the negotiations, but it's necessary that Russia come into these negotiations really with the political will. | ||
| I just give you the one example which happened in the second round of the talks in Istanbul. | ||
| when our delegations presents and gave to the russians the one of the part the list of the more than 300 deported ukrainian children and later you will listen about the general situation about deported ukrainian children and just have the opportunity to see some real children their stories | ||
| delegation listened such a phrase from Mr. Medinsky. | ||
| He said, please don't stop stop, please stop this absolutely show which you make with these children. | ||
| It's show for the old European woman without children. | ||
| It's what necessary to know about the attitude of these people and this country just to this very, I don't know, it's very painful for us, but it's absolutely. | ||
| It's about children. | ||
| It's not about soldiers, it's about children. | ||
| We don't stop, we will not stop to try and to make our best and we believe that, and now we have the coalition of the many countries who has helped us to bring our children to home. | ||
| President Zelensky started a special initiative bring kids back UA and operational director of this program will explain to you what results would we have but, of course, how many things we need to do, because we are talking about thousands, unfortunately thousands dozens, thousands of the of the of the of these children. | ||
| In the end of my speech I'd like to say that definitely. | ||
| Again, three years, it's long period of time but believe that Ukrainian nation Ukraine, we are living, we are continuing to fight the. | ||
| What happened in the last weekend demonstrated that we are strong enough. | ||
| We are able to achieve just and lasting peace. | ||
| We account very much for continuous support of our partners, first of all of United States, And I think the end of this war, the just and lasting peace, it's very important, not just for Ukraine, because we defend not just our freedom and independence. | ||
| We defend Europe, we defend the free world in our continent. | ||
| And this is very important to not lose after these three, more than three years, the faith that Ukraine able to win this war. | ||
| Win, I mean that we want, we do not pretend it for the any centimeters of the Russian land. | ||
| We're talking about our lands, we're talking about our people, we're talking about our security. | ||
| Thank you very much, and I happy that you will have the opportunity to listen to all my colleagues and the in details by this very important for us issue, which today we have the opportunity to make the brief in the Senate. | ||
| And it was very helpful and very, I think, successful. | ||
| Thank you very much for your attention. | ||
| But now I'd like to invite our first speakers, Itzeki Boyo, first deputy minister of defense of Ukraine, and Pablo Polisa, Hero of Ukraine, Combat Commander, General of Ukrainian Armed Forces, Deputy Head of Presidential Office. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon everybody. | ||
| So today I had an honor to speak to senators in the US Senate. | ||
| So my mission was to break some Russian narratives and to bring the real picture what we have now in Ukraine. | ||
| Everybody heard about the memo which Russian Federation brought to Istanbul this week. | ||
| My point is that Russia is not at the position when they can bring and put at the table nothing but act of capitulation of Ukraine in terms of military. | ||
| And let me explain you why. | ||
| Here, for supporting my words, we have the map. | ||
| And let me give you a couple numbers. | ||
| In the first month of the full-scale invasion, Russian troops occupied 25.9% of Ukraine's territory. | ||
| In April 2022, after a successful counter-offensive operation, we armed forces of Ukraine and all defense forces were able to deoccupy 7.8% of Ukraine's territory. | ||
| Then in 2024, Russia occupied 0.5% of Ukraine's territory. | ||
| And they declare 2024 as a successful year for them. | ||
| And For last five months, Russia occupies zero point two percent of Ukraine's territory. | ||
| It doesn't look like great success, but the cost of every square kilometer for Russians is one hundred sixty seven killed inaction soldiers. | ||
| And that's why we think that Russia is not at the position that allows them to give us some kind of ultimatums and give us actually nothing but act of capitulation of Ukraine. | ||
| At the same time, I want to remind all of you that that was an unprovoked war, and Ukraine is the victim, first of all. | ||
| And using this one moment, I want to say thank you for all brothers and sisters in arms which are serving now to Ukraine, to our country, and stand on the first line for our values, for our country, and our freedom. | ||
| And of course, I want to say thank you to our partners, first of all, the United States and our European partners for and actually all three worlds which support us. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And I think it's important to highlight that Russia for over three years of full-scale invasion didn't reach any objects that they declared at the beginning of the full scale invasion. | ||
| And you know, it's if I'm pretty sure that if anybody asks any soldier in the area of operation, are you tired of war? | ||
| Probably everyone will say yes. | ||
| But the next question, are you ready to surrender? | ||
| I give you one hundred percent. | ||
| Everybody will say no. | ||
| But at the same time, we are ready for unconditional ceasefire. | ||
| The next point that of my speech today in Senate was the operation of spider web. | ||
| I think it's not necessary to stop it in details and look at it in details, but just I want to confirm that, first of all, that was the operation against legitimate military targets. | ||
| We are not engaging the civil people like Russia do. | ||
| And I can confirm that as a result, we have forty one strategic bombers targeted. | ||
| Half of them are completely destroyed and other half of them are not operating now. | ||
| And it's important, I think, let you know that We targeted two AVAX planes, A50. | ||
| Actually, that was the great success for our secret service, for all who was involved in this operation. | ||
| And using this moment, I want to say thank you for them as well. | ||
| Next slide, please. | ||
| Here, we had a video for two minutes about this operation. | ||
| If you want, we can show you. | ||
| I think there is a lot of things that you didn't solve. | ||
| But before, because the video without sound, I mean, just you. | ||
| Because Palmot don't say about himself is it's I want to say it. | ||
| He's a colonel of our army. | ||
| He's hero of Ukraine. | ||
| And just five months, he joined our team in the office of president directly from Frostbite. | ||
| He's a person who is defending Patrols, which Russia declared that started to occupy one years ago. | ||
| It's still controlled by the train. | ||
| During this operation, nobody was killed. | ||
| Nobody was warmed. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| So my third point today was about plans, but not our plans, but Russian plans. | ||
| Here we have the map, the screen. | ||
| So, nearest, I mean, last couple months, we have a lot of talks about the ceasefire, about peace agreement, and Ukraine and all our partners put their efforts to bring the ceasefire to Ukraine. | ||
| Of course, you hear that Russia tries to speak about that, but without any result. | ||
| So, meanwhile, we were speaking, they are planning how to occupy the rest territory of Ukraine. | ||
| We have information from military intelligence that Till the end of September, Russia plans to occupy whole Donetsk and Lugansk regions. | ||
| Till the end of this year, they are planning to create a buffer zone along the Ukrainian and Russia border in Sume and Kharkiv region. | ||
| And they are planning to occupy Kherson to the end of this year as well. | ||
| And it's interesting, but they have plans even for 2026. | ||
| The plan for next year is to occupy the whole part of Ukraine, which is situated on the left bank of the Dnfro River, and to occupy Odessa region and Mykalaya region to cut Ukraine's access to the Black Sea. | ||
| So here you can make an assessment what they think about in reality. | ||
| Unfortunately, they are not speaking about peace. | ||
| They are preparing for war. | ||
| So this is all what I have. | ||
| thank you for your time and your attention and i give the floor to deputy of the ministry of defense of ukraine sir he boyer please thank you pavlo uh | ||
| Dear colleagues, I would like to pick up where Pablo stopped and talk a little bit of what allows Russia to plan to have these aggressive plans. | ||
| So we believe that what stands behind the Russian war machine are oil revenues and supply chain and industrial support from partners. | ||
| As you can see, oil revenues are largely what stands behind the ability of Russia to have this high and increasing military budget, which grew 87% from the level of 2022. | ||
| It's $148 billion. | ||
| And this is what allows Russia to recruit people, to increase its replenish its resources, but also to invest in the ramp-up of defense industrial production. | ||
| This is very important to put a stop to the ability of Russia to finance its war machine to increase its budget to mobilize its economy. | ||
| Next page. | ||
| Russia's oil and gas exports, it's not just a Russia problem. | ||
| These supercharged profits enable the Kremlin to unite its partners around itself through cooperation, strengthening Iran, North Korea, and China. | ||
| Russia purchases machinery, components for UAVs, and ammunition materials from China. | ||
| In return, Russia sells China advanced military aircraft, hundreds of aircraft engines, and armored vehicles. | ||
| The same goes for Iran and North Korea. | ||
| Moscow sends dozens of aircraft, helicopters, and advanced missile technology. | ||
| Tehran and Pyonyan provide Russia with millions of artillery rounds, artillery systems, drones, and ballistic missiles. | ||
| The weapons that Russia and its allies produce today is directed against Ukrainians. | ||
| However, tomorrow, these weapons may make their way to other parts of the world and be used against the soldiers from the US or from one of the militaries of our partners. | ||
| Next page. | ||
| To tackle Russian aggression in 2025, we developed the defence strategy, which has three components. | ||
| Stabilize the front line, protect our sky, our people, our economy, and to impede Russia's ability to generate forces and ramp up defense industrial output. | ||
| As has been mentioned in the previous speech, we would like to stabilize the front line, and we have been quite effective to strike Russia deep in the rear, and you have seen the video proof of that. | ||
| Next page, please. | ||
| In maintenance and increasing our capabilities to fight, we are certainly very grateful to the US for standing with us through all this time. | ||
| You have the best weapons that have helped our soldiers through all these years of war: battery systems and interceptors, fighter jets, artillery rounds, Himars and missiles for them, GMLRS attackers, air munitions, infantry fighting vehicles, famous Bradley, and others. | ||
| We are very keen to establish the framework for making the delivery of such weapons to Ukraine going forward. | ||
| Next page, please. | ||
| We also want to deepen our partnership with leading U.S. defense companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Nordrop Bruman, DNM, General Dynamics, BE System. | ||
| Our military is the biggest in Europe and has been the most active user and customer of the US weapons. | ||
| We believe that US companies will find such partnerships valuable and increase in production of critical weapons that would keep all of us safer. | ||
| Next page: Ukraine has developed a resilient and highly innovative defense industry, which we believe would make a good partner to US companies. | ||
| When I joined the Ministry for Strategic Industries, which was responsible for defense industry development back in 2023, the industry, as you can see, was just $1 billion. | ||
| Together, we talk about $35 billion of capacity. | ||
| One-third of this is drones. | ||
| We are the world's number one drone producer. | ||
| Our capacity is more than 10 million drones, what we can produce of all different types. | ||
| Drones are taking over the artillery as a mainly salary weapon at the battlefield. | ||
| And so, we believe that jointly with the U.S. advanced US technologies, we can really build up some new generation drone warfare capabilities that would make us win this war, be safe, bring peace to Europe, but also to build the capabilities that would contribute to the capabilities of the US and of all our partners. | ||
| Next page. | ||
| To summarize, I would like to emphasize that to compel Russia to pursue peace, we need to stop its ability to fuel its war machine. | ||
| It is critical to enact sanctions on any country that buys Russian oil or sells components to the Russian defense industry. | ||
| On the battlefield, we need a long-term mega-deal of advanced U.S. weapon supply. | ||
| We are very keen to enter into co-production mega-projects to produce advanced US weapons. | ||
| From our side, we are ready to offer our knowledge and expertise in drone and other innovative products. | ||
| These economic and military elements will form the foundation of our strengths, our joint strengths that will end this war and bring the lasting peace. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let me invite an advisor to the President, Presidential Envoy on Sanctions Policy of Lugislavić, Russia. | ||
| Thank you for coming, dear folks. | ||
| So, just a couple of words: what we've been briefing the honourable senators about the sanctions today in the morning. | ||
| So, first point would be the figure of 595 billion. | ||
| That is what we believe Russia made out of exporting the oil since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. | ||
| We think that this is the massive number, and this is exactly what keeps their financial system stable and the war going on. | ||
| Next figure to flag is that seventy percent of the oil being purchased by China plus India, and that number really increased or this share really increased after the beginning of the Fluency invasion. | ||
| So we think that there is a direct connection between who actually pays to Russia for what they've been doing against Ukraine. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| Another slide, this is to the point would the sanctions against shadow fleet be as a disrupting of the global markets of the oil? | ||
| We believe not. | ||
| Not a single round of sanctions ever disrupted the global markets or increased the prices at the global markets of oil. | ||
| So we do think that no further actions in this area will disrupt the markets and we think that this is a really strong point. | ||
| Another point is to the question whether the sanctions against the shadow fleet has actually been efficient. | ||
| Yes, we think yes. | ||
| So first that Russia has not made extra one hundred fifty billion selling the oil just because of the sanctions. | ||
| So this is the direct impact of the sanctions. | ||
| And second is the vessels which have been designated by the US government. | ||
| This is total two hundred eleven vessels. | ||
| Not more than thirty six percent of them are actually operational after that, but still thirty six percent of the operational vessel. | ||
| This is also the figure which we do not like. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| This is to compare the efficiency of the sanctions. | ||
| So we think that the US sanctions against Russian shadow fleet have proved them to be the most efficient sanctions, again for the same reasons. | ||
| The only not good situation is that at this moment the US has sanctioned less vessels as any other sanctioned countries, sanctioned coalition countries. | ||
| And this is also to remember that there is a clear cross in between the Iranian shadow fleet and Russian shadow fleet. | ||
| So at least eighty seven vessels are exactly the same, helping to carry around both Iranian oil and Russian oil. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| So should the introduced Linsi Grams bill be adopted, what that will lead to? | ||
| Our modest estimation is that that will deny Russia from getting extra sixty billion Euros revenues of oil exports by the end of this year. | ||
| This is to remind this is exactly the same number how much the Russians sent or spent on waging the war for a year, so this is equal to one year war budget. | ||
| And we also remember that there is still the LNG being purchased by European Union from Russia and we think that the US exporters could easily substitute that. | ||
| So this concludes our presentation. | ||
| We believe that we have to impose more sanctions against Russia and we have to say that the sanctions have been working effectively and we think that the more sanctions will also create very correct impact against Russian economy. | ||
| Let me now invite Daria Zarivna, Operations Director of President Zelensky Green Kids Tech UA Initiative. | ||
| Thank you very much, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| I'm humbled and honored to be here, but my reason is tragic – Russians are stealing Ukrainian children. | ||
| I am representing here the Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by President Zelensky in 2023, which aims to return all the illegally deported and forcibly transferred Ukrainian children and unites the efforts of Ukrainian government, civil society and international partners to return those children and to support them with their proper reintegration and rehabilitation program. | ||
| I want to start by sharing the story of Ilya from Mariupol. | ||
| Please switch on the video. | ||
| My name is Ilya. | ||
| I am 11 years old, but at that time I was 9. | ||
| I live in Mariupol with my mom and brother. | ||
| Well, lived before the war, everything was great. | ||
| I had a great mom, a great school, friends, and my home. | ||
| Overall, my city was great. | ||
| And then it exploded. | ||
| Well, and I was hit here, here, here, and my mom in the forehead got hit. | ||
| I realized my mom died when this neighbor came up to her and measured her pulse. | ||
| I stayed in that house with a neighbor for some time, but then one day these Russian soldiers came and said, like, evacuation. | ||
| I was in Donetsk for a month. | ||
| They performed various surgeries and procedures on me. | ||
| The very first surgery was removing the shrapnel. | ||
| Well, it wasn't easy since it was without anesthesia. | ||
| Even though I had a severe injury in this hospital, they still try to make it a tool of sorts, like propaganda, they taught Russian language, well, writing. | ||
| And once my doctor came up to me and said that now you'll say not glory to Ukraine, but glory to Ukraine as part of Russia. | ||
| Maybe it was another way to brainwash, but I won't be taken just like that. | ||
| And then when the connection was interrupted, there was no electricity. | ||
| My son from Austria found a video for me around the Russian Federation where Ilusha ended up in a hospital, the trauma center of the city of Donetsk. | ||
| And I understood that Ilusha needed to be freed from Donetsk. | ||
| And then I already started to dream about how it would be. | ||
| And I started knocking. | ||
| And thank God I was helped to do it. | ||
| He was in such a state. | ||
| Understand? | ||
| He had a school. | ||
| He had a home. | ||
| He had a mother. | ||
| And that's it. | ||
| He lost all his childhood. | ||
| He was withdrawn. | ||
| He was frightened by noise. | ||
| He was frightened by sirens. | ||
| He had no memory. | ||
| He only remembered the moments he went through with his mother in Mariupol. | ||
| They didn't just kill my mom. | ||
| Well, they literally did not give a chance not only to her, but to all the people in Mariupol any chance to survive. | ||
| Thanks for your attention. | ||
| Russians believe they can just come and grab children as war trophies. | ||
| Their kidnapping playbook usually consists of three stages. | ||
| Stage number one, steal. | ||
| Ilya Vashenka, kidnapped at the age of two. | ||
| Here is his photo. | ||
| Fostered in Kherson children's home. | ||
| He was then brought by the prescription of medical examination to Moscow. | ||
| It was organized by Ina Varlamova, the wife of Sergei Mironov, one of the closest Putin allies, the head of the political party Fair Russia. | ||
| They were preparing this boy for adoption. | ||
| They gave him new birth certificate, they gave him new citizenship, but when they discovered that Ilya has health problems, the boy has disappeared. | ||
| We have no idea where he is now. | ||
| What we do know is that Ilya was one of two children who were taken by Ina Varlamova to Moscow. | ||
| The second one was Margarita Prakapenka, 11 months old when kidnapped. | ||
| And here it goes. | ||
| Here it comes. | ||
| Stage number two. | ||
| Erase or alter identity. | ||
| So Margarita Prakapenka was took by Ina Varlamova to Moscow. | ||
| Again, picture this. | ||
| Baby girl kidnapped directly from the hospital. | ||
| Illegally adopted by Mironov and Varlamova in Moscow. | ||
| They changed, please, the next slide. | ||
| They changed her birthplace. | ||
| Her name from Margarita Prakapenka to Marina Mironova. | ||
| Her date of birth, her citizenship. | ||
| Completely destroyed her identity. | ||
| What language will she speak? | ||
| What language will she speak when she grows up? | ||
| What will she know about her roots? | ||
| Margarita was among 40 children who were kidnapped directly from Kherson children's home, all under the age of five. | ||
| You know that toddlers grow very fast at this age. | ||
| The people who were teaching them in Kherson children's home will not be able even to recognize them if they will meet them on the street. | ||
| Please, next slide. | ||
| Here is the photo of Maxim, Margarita's brother, who was three years old. | ||
| They were separated and we do not know anything about Maxim's whereabouts. | ||
| Next slide, please. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| Can you please switch on the video? | ||
| Here is a video from Kherson Children's Home. | ||
| And here you see the footage of Russians stealing these children from Kherson Children's Home and putting them in the cars and buses. | ||
| 744,000 Ukrainian children. | ||
| That is the number which was proudly announced by Maria Lvova Belova, Putin Child Rights Commissioner. | ||
| After she was imposed under international sanctions, she stopped using any figures publicly. | ||
| Now, the next slide. | ||
| We come to the third stage, indoctrination and militarization. | ||
| Next slide, please. | ||
| Two names. | ||
| Dmitro Kotov, born in Crimea. | ||
| Ivan Shifman, born in Donetsk region. | ||
| Both in their mid-teens when Russia invaded. | ||
| Both Ukrainians. | ||
| Both brainwashed through patriotic youth organizations like Jun Army, which is openly, by the way, functioning under the Russian Ministry of Defense. | ||
| Both forever 19. | ||
| Both killed at the start of the full-scale invasion. | ||
| Both Ukrainians fighting against their own people and killed at the battlefield. | ||
| Next slide, please. | ||
| Human rights organizations estimate around 1.6 million Ukrainian children who are staying at the territories under Russian control. | ||
| This figure includes both deported children forcibly transferred and the ones who are living at the temporarily occupied territories. | ||
| Russia conducts massive brainwashing on them. | ||
| These children have been constantly indoctrinized and militarized. | ||
| At the age of 14, they get forcibly granted Russian citizenship. | ||
| And at the age of 18, they forcibly have to be drafted to the Russian military forces and obliged to fight against their own people or face punishment. | ||
| Other case or other option is the story of Alexander Yakushenko. | ||
| Alexander Yakushinka was fostered in the family in Krasnodar region and separated with his sister. | ||
| He wanted to return to Ukraine and he asked to return him. | ||
| But Russians never let him go. | ||
| And he committed suicide. | ||
| In his last note, he noted, nobody wants me here. | ||
| We've managed to know about Sasha's story, but Russia trying to hide the information about the whole children. | ||
| They do not give access to any information or to any children, neither to Ukraine, neither to any international organizations, neither to UNICEF or to ICRC or to UN Committee on Children's Rights to no one. | ||
| Next slide, please. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, we are deeply grateful that President Trump and his negotiation team showing lots of attention and interest to this topic. | ||
| And the President of the United States has publicly stated that this question touches his heart and he wants to return these children. | ||
| We deeply value the bipartisan support in this issue and we thank the authors of the recent resolution on children and to everyone who supported this resolution. | ||
| And of course we understand that given the magnitude of the issue, we may need a new internationally recognized mechanism for the return of these children. | ||
| That one that could facilitate the unconditional large-scale return of the Ukrainian children. | ||
| I think that we all should align here that children cannot be exchanged for territories or objects or any political concessions. | ||
| As a part of confidence-building measures, Ukraine has given to Russia the list of 339 Ukrainian children. | ||
| This is the part of the confidence-building measures which give Russia an opportunity to show their good faith, their goodwill, and to return at least some of these children. | ||
| Even 100 children will be the biggest return in the history of Brinkits Back UA and will be the big success both for Ukraine and for US-led peace negotiations. | ||
| So, what should be done, and what is the key call to action of my speech? | ||
| First of all, we ask to put more pressure on Russia and to put more sanctions as a part of legislation to punish Putin's terrorist state. | ||
| Second, we ask to insist for the return for at least some of these children as a part of confidence-building measures in negotiations. | ||
| We think that US diplomacy can be essential for breaking this deadlock. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. | ||
| I want to say that America has always stood for the innocent, for the freedom. | ||
| And now I kindly ask you to help the most vulnerable ones. | ||
| Please help us bring kids back to Ukraine. | ||
| Thank you for your attention. | ||
| Let me now invite Viktor Zelensky, head of state service of Ukraine for ethnic policy. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, I'm speaking about religious freedom and religious persecution in Ukraine. | ||
| Ukraine is a stronghold of religious freedom all over Central and Eastern Europe, and at the same time, Ukraine is a Bible belt for Central and Eastern Europe. | ||
| Ukraine is proud to be the center of religious freedom. | ||
| Ukraine is proud to have 35,000 religious congregations of different faiths, and religious pluralism and religious collaboration between different congregations is hallmarks of the religious landscape of Ukraine. | ||
| People of different faiths held the highest position in Ukrainian political, cultural, and military establishment. | ||
| People of absolutely different ethnic origin held the highest position in Ukrainian government. | ||
| Religious freedom ends when and where Russians' military comes. | ||
| From the very beginning of full-scale invasion, Russians start to kill pastors, clerics and clergymen of different faiths. | ||
| Many of them were killed deliberately, being in liturgical waste, like Priest Maxim Kazachina from Kiev region, like Dudarenko, like Priest Grigory Polenchak, who was kidnapped and murdered last February. | ||
| Additionally, Russians destroyed, damaged or demolished 630 sacral buildings, cathedrals, mosques, synagogues, and sites of worship. | ||
| I would like to give panel to Pastor Michael Britsy from Ukrainian town of Militopol, occupied now by Russians, | ||
| who went through all this, how to say, paradise of Russian occupation in terms of religious persecution, and who has his own tragic story about this. | ||
| Please, Pastor Michael. | ||
| I praise God for the opportunity to say today from the behalf of people who now live in occupied territory. | ||
| I was ordained in 1992. | ||
| We restored all historical evangelical building and church over there. | ||
| That church was built in 1914. | ||
| In 1936, the Soviet government took away that building and killed all pastors there. | ||
| We restored this building in 1991. | ||
| We opened the door and we enjoyed 30 years of religious freedom in Ukraine. | ||
| But in 2022, Russians occupied our city. | ||
| A big church became a church on occupied territory. | ||
| It was really difficult to survive the first days and first weeks of occupation. | ||
| I still remember empty shelves of old Soviet Union era. | ||
| That era came back to the territory. | ||
| And churches became humanitarian heps. | ||
| We help people to survive there. | ||
| We serve them as we did for all last 30 years. | ||
| But all what we did was against Russian propaganda. | ||
| So they try to buy us as pastors, then threaten us, then they try to arrest us and then deported us from the territory. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| Next slide. | ||
| September 11th, 2022. | ||
| During worship service, 20 armed Russian soldiers came to our worship service. | ||
| They blocked people in centuries. | ||
| They fingerprint everybody. | ||
| They put documents, photos, addresses. | ||
| They interrogated my colleague ministers. | ||
| They interrogated me separately. | ||
| They banned our church. | ||
| They seized our building. | ||
| And they make, they cut cross, they put these portraits on our church and they make the ministry of cultural from our church building. | ||
| They praise Putin on the stage where we used to praise God. | ||
| Next. | ||
| They cut another cross of Pentecostal church and put old Soviet car instead. | ||
| This is the level of their cultural. | ||
| And I'm sure to make a statement that Pushkin Dostoevsky in Bali doesn't make people more cultural. | ||
| God, the Creator, makes people more cultural when we reflect his creativity and his harmony. | ||
| Now I work in Mission Eurasia. | ||
| I live in Ukraine. | ||
| I have a lot of contacts. | ||
| And we make a special report, Face Under Russia Tor, which give you a lot of analytics and information and statistics about killed people and banned organizations. | ||
| A lot of people really were killed. | ||
| And I have my database of all killed priests and pastors. | ||
| And there are no chaplains or those who were mobilized and have military duty. | ||
| No, it's completely 100% civilian people. | ||
| Just two days ago, this list is for one more person. | ||
| Olga, the choir director in the Zaporozhye area of Orthodox Church, were killed by miscellaneous. | ||
| And I thank you for your attention to our delegation, to our stories. | ||
| And I would pray, I would pray for you in order to, like a preacher from all Bible texts, choose one and make a sermon in order to build up their people. | ||
| I will pray for you in order from all events. | ||
| You will choose the events and make the news in order to build up your society. | ||
| May God bless you. | ||
| And our final presentation is from Yulia Surdenko, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, first Deputy Prime Minister. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| I know that you are tired, so I will be briefly. | ||
| One of the topics that we discussed during these last two days in Washington was how to make the operational fund that have been settled with our US partner, U.S.-Ukraine Investment Fund, aimed to invest in critical raw materials projects. | ||
| And I just want to remind you that Ukraine is going to make our own contribution from the revenues go from royalty payments, licenses, fees. | ||
| And it's very important that we create a legal framework that allows U.S. partners to contribute both with financial investment and also with defense assistance. | ||
| So it's something that allows us to get new assistance through this fund. | ||
| Then I would want to show you the map on the critical raw materials. | ||
| I hope that it will be useful for you. | ||
| You might see that Ukraine possesses one of the largest critical raw materials resources based in Europe. | ||
| And it makes strategically important for such sectors like defense, like electric mobiles, green transition. | ||
| And you might look at the estimated results that we have and potential results. | ||
| Also, during the next slide, I will show you what is the dependence of the United States from the import that you have from China and Russia in terms of critical raw materials. | ||
| And I want to underline that the US imports 70% of rare earths from China. | ||
| This is essential to power industry, was worth tens of billions, such as robotics, green tech, and defense. | ||
| So now China is restricting its exports. | ||
| And I think it's time for Ukraine to step in. | ||
| We have two largest deposits of rare earth elements, one in the central of Ukraine and another one at the east. | ||
| So if you look at the graphite, you might see that right now imports over 90% of its processed graphite from China. | ||
| And Ukraine also has one of the biggest reserves in Europe, over 330 million tons. | ||
| And we already have operating sites and other projects that are already ready for implementation. | ||
| And the same, I think, titanium is extremely important both for Ukraine and for the United States as titanium used in the defense industry, in the aerospace industry. | ||
| And China and Russia dominate the global titanium market, especially in powder-grade titanium. | ||
| And the United States today imports over 90% of this material, including for military aircraft. | ||
| And actually, I can speak, you know, and I can give you a very broad understanding of what we have in terms of critical raw materials. | ||
| But I think that it's important to know that we have not only this list of critical raw materials and deposits, but also very concrete investment-ready projects. | ||
| The investment projects are worth around 7 billion US dollars. | ||
| So it means that we are open for US investment, for US technology. | ||
| And today we had several meetings with Secretary Besant with DFC as a general partner of this fund. | ||
| And we discussed very concrete steps how to make this fund operational during this year. | ||
| So we plan to have the first board meeting for this fund in July. | ||
| And we would discuss what will be the seed capital to start operating this fund. | ||
| And actually, we should adopt the investment strategy for this fund for the next few years. | ||
| So that's why I think that we had very concrete meetings, and I'm grateful that the US has a long-term view on cooperation with Ukraine in terms of investment. | ||
| And we are open for the cooperation with our US partner. | ||
| very briefly hey guys we have time maybe for two to three questions so So, I would like to start with Fox first. | ||
| My question is for Andrei Yermak. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thanks for doing this. | ||
| Today, Marks, the first day, very first time the U.S. Defense Secretary has not attended the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in more than three years since the group has begun. | ||
| What message does Ukraine take away from that? | ||
| And my second question is: what weapons does Ukraine need most from the United States right now? | ||
| You know, our cooperation with the United States is continuing. | ||
| Honestly, I don't know the all details about the non-presence of the Secretary of Defense today in the Ramstein group, but what I definitely know is that, as I said, our cooperation is continuing. | ||
| We discussed the next steps, and just during these two days, we have the opportunity to talk in the White House, in the State Department, and in the Hills. | ||
| What about what we need? | ||
| It's maybe most right to ask these questions. | ||
| Pablo, if you can join me, but what I can say from my side, what is the most important for us, what President Zelensky mentioned in all his speech, we need more air defense. | ||
| It's still a very big problem for us because we can't protect our city and in the difference, as I said in my speech, in the difference of the Russians, we work for against the especially military objects. | ||
| Unfortunately, Russia continues to attack our civilians. | ||
| And the pictures which you can see in the news, it's absolutely a reality of our everyday. | ||
| Every day, every night. | ||
| Just yesterday it was in Summi, several people were killed. | ||
| And we exactly know that this is not because it's mistakenly took in some place. | ||
| You remember what happened in the children's hospital Ahmadiyya in Kyiv? | ||
| And we exactly know they hit it directly to hospital in which we have the children with the cancer disease. | ||
| Maybe you want to add something about the shortly about what military we are exactly. | ||
| Yeah, please. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sir, okay, I'll try. | ||
| So, agree, our first priority is air defense systems and the ammunition and rockets for air defense. | ||
| First of all, to protect our territory, our cities, and our objects of critical infrastructure from the sky. | ||
| And of course, we still need to keep our platforms, I mean, which we get from our partners, operational, so we need some parts to maintain, to sustain them. | ||
| And of course, it's artillery rounds. | ||
| In general, that's all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| One more question. | ||
| Okay, Jennifer. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you, Jennifer. | ||
| I'm Srinivas. | ||
| And my question is also for Mr. Yerman. | ||
| As you probably saw, sir, President Trump put out a statement about his call with President Putin saying he had been warned of retaliation, but it didn't seem he dissuaded him from trying to retaliate for Operation Spiderweb. | ||
| Are you concerned that Trump's posts and comments are undercutting efforts to get to a peace? | ||
| What did they tell you about negotiation next steps? | ||
| And did they express any concerns about Operation Spiderweb? | ||
| Look, first of all, I saw in the last tweet of President Trump about his support of the bill and the more active steps from Congress, which can give President Trump additional instruments to go forward of the peace process. | ||
| You know, as I said in my speech, we are very appreciated that, nevertheless, of the lot of circumstances, President Trump continued to work and continue to demonstrate that he really wants to end this war. | ||
| You know, in this way, it's not a simple way, and it's necessary that really Russia will start demonstrating the political will. | ||
| You know that the President sended us, our President sent it us to Jeddah to the first Round of the meetings with the American delegations, he asked me and the members of the delegation that we need to back with two decisions. | ||
| First, we need to take off any questions to Ukraine. | ||
| We need to be in the position that for Ukraine, for our position, will be zero questions, that no, we are victim of aggression, but we are demonstrated, we are clear, we are constructive, and we are doing everything and all the best to stop this war and to achieve the just and lasting peace. | ||
| And the second, it was to beg for the delivery of the weapons and to exchange of the intelligence information. | ||
| I'm happy that our delegation back with both two results. | ||
| Now we are on the right track. | ||
| We are again, we have a lot of I just wanted to list it because you maybe not believe how it's possible during the 48 hours to have such numbers of the meetings, but it's true, it's reality. | ||
| We have very constructive, and I'm very happy that we have this dialogue in the different levels. | ||
| First of all, in the level between our leaders, in the level of the military, in the level of intelligence, in the level of the national security advisor, in the level of the Secretary of State and Foreign Minister. | ||
| And let's go forward, but this way. | ||
| Again, it's not a simple way. | ||
| We definitely know who is Russians. | ||
| I'm headed the delegation in the Normandy format. | ||
| And believe me, we have 200 rounds negotiations with Russia before full-scale invasion. | ||
| Sometimes it was 10, 12 hours without any results. | ||
| In the presence of France and Germany, who definitely want to help and always come and try to help us to achieve the solutions, I think it's mostly necessary to think for the future. | ||
| I think it will be a very important meeting in G7 and Canada, in which I also invited President Zelensky. | ||
| I think it's time, as my colleague said, at what we discussed during these two days, to increase the pressure to Russia. | ||
| We are very much looking for the new sanctions, and it's necessary to create the right atmosphere. | ||
| Then Russia go to negotiation, but go not show, make a show for concrete and real negotiation. | ||
| And one very important point, we will continue to insist that on the table of these negotiations have to be United States have to be our European friends and partners, because the future of Ukraine is in the European Union, and this is absolutely logical, that if we discuss the biggest war in the European continent after the Second World War, and if we're talking about security, new security mechanism for the future, | ||
| it's important that European friends, European countries will be on the table. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Unfortunately, we don't have time. | ||
| I think you heard the most critical question you wanted to hear the answer to. | ||
| I just want to clarify one point that Mr. Irmark was referring to in his speech. | ||
| He said that Russians didn't want to see American colleagues in the room if it wasn't clear for someone. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So thank you very much, and see you next time. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And a count of two balls in one strike. | ||
| And a swing of base hit left field. | ||
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