Distinguished guests,

Honourable Members of Parliament, 

Your Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps,

Dear Ukrainians,

I am deeply grateful that you have joined us on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the full-scale war of aggression unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

Since the 24th of February 2022, virtually the entire world has begun to live in a new reality. Yet the reality of round-the-clock bombardment of civilians, the abduction of Ukrainian children, the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and the insidiousness of the Russian aggressor along a frontline stretching over more than a thousand kilometers — this reality is profoundly different. It is a reality of daily suffering and steadfast endurance.

Throughout these exhausting for Ukrainians four years, the rhetoric of the aggressor state has also transformed from the claim that “the Russian world protects Russian speaking people” – or, in other words, from the hypocrisy of “peacemaking” – to outright genocidal crimes against Ukrainians and openly declared intentions to establish Kremlin power in other states by military force. 

Let me also remind that the Belarusian regime bears co-responsibility for this aggression. In 2022, it provided its territory for the assault on Ukraine and for the launching of missiles at Kyiv. In the second half of 2025, Minsk has allowed Russia to deploy a system of relay stations in Belarus to control drone attacks on Ukraine. Also Belarus allowеd to deploy Russian hypersonic Oreshnik missile on its territory. 

The presence of Russian troops in Transnistria remains a serious security risk — for Ukraine, for Moldova, and for the entire region.

Strong, stable and resilient security architecture in Europe is the alpha and omega of the law-based world order. Stopping Russian aggression against Ukraine is our daily bread. The Ukrainian resistance has grown into a civilizational confrontation. This war has fundamentally transformed the system of international relations.

European security policy has already undergone significant changes, including the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, increased rearmament, enhanced energy independence measures, efforts to strengthen sanctions against Russia and to counter hybrid threats. 

Russia, which before the full-scale invasion was perceived in Europe as a subject of economic relations, has become a direct threat to the European security system. 

Ukraine, once perceived by many as secondary and peripheral, with membership prospects considered distant and almost unrealistic, has proven to be capable, resilient, and genuinely committed to European values.

In 2022, the European Union made the historic political decision to grant Ukraine a candidate status. Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a guarantee of security for Ukraine — but it is also a mutual guarantee, strengthening the European Union itself.

Our path is extremely difficult. To survive in freezing temperatures under missile attacks; to restore infrastructure, to repair, to provide medical care, to educate children amid destruction — this requires strength of spirit and love: love for ourselves, love for one’s neighbor, and love for our homeland. 

Yet through pragmatic steps, we are preparing reform roadmaps and fulfilling the technical conditions that are required to open negotiation chapters. Even in the midst of a genocidal war, we are moving forward quickly.

Ukraine will always be grateful for the military, energy, financial, and humanitarian assistance provided by the United States, the European Union, and our partner countries. We value the support of the Coalition of the Willing, the participants of PURL, in particular the North Macedonia’s contribution to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, and other joint defense initiatives.

We are firmly committed to partnership. Any country could not have found by its own the defensive and financial capacity to withstand hundreds of missiles and drone attacks per day for four consecutive years.

Our priorities are clear: investment in weapons production in Ukraine; development of drone and interceptor-drone production in partner countries to increase the rate at which Russian drones are intercepted and destroyed.

Ukraine is building a new system of protection and response. At the Munich Security Conference, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated: 

“Our wall of drones is your wall of drones. Our expertise in drones is part of your security. Our ability to stop assaults and Russian sabotage can also be part of your defence. “

Another essential point: sanctions pressure on Russia must be maximised. The 20th sanctions package prepared by the European Commission must strike at Russia’s energy sector, its shadow fleet, its financial system, and its trade. It must reduce the revenues that fuel the Kremlin’s war machine of death, which for four years has been killing people in the center of Europe.

How many people might still be alive if conditional phrases had the power to bring life back and to set things right.

But now we know the capacity of the Kremlin regime for brutality. Therefore we must correctly assess the dimensions of this war – whether perceived as distant or dangerously close. It is our unity and determination that must ultimately force the aggressor state to the end this war. 

Thank you for your attention.

And let me to take one more moment of your attention, please.

Allow me to express my sincere gratitude to His Eminence Bishop Kiro Stojanov; to Father Zoran; to Caritas, which established a donation account within the joint Warmth for Ukraine campaign together with CivilMedia; as well as to the members of the diplomatic corps and especially to Vilma Dambrauskienė and to the Honorary Consul of Lithuania in North Macedonia, Marjan Stojmenov, who with their energy and contributions supported the Warmth for Ukraine initiative, born in Poland. 

I would also like to express special thanks to the General Manager of Rade Koncar, Goran Antevski.

Thank you for your solidarity.

Thank you for standing with Ukraine.