PRESIDENT VON
DER LEYEN: Thank you very much, Mr.
President, dear Volodymr:
What a pleasure to welcome you back to Brussels. I am very pleased to be here
with you today for our bilateral meeting that we just had but also the VTC that
we will then have in the Coalition of the Willing. And of course, I am very glad
that I am able to accompany you and other European leaders for the meeting
tomorrow that we have with the U.S. President in the White House.
Since the beginning of Russia's brutal invasion, Europe has been at Ukraine's
side, united, and we will support you for as long as it takes for a just and
lasting peace. And this peace must be achieved through strength. Let me touch
upon the main points.
First, we must have strong security guarantees to protect both Ukraine and
Europe's vital security interests. Ukraine must be able to uphold its
sovereignty and its territorial integrity. There can be no limitations on
Ukrainian armed forces, be it cooperation with other third countries or
assistance from other third countries -- no limitations for the Ukrainian armed
forces. As I have often said, Ukraine must become a steel porcupine,
undigestible for potential invaders. We welcome President Trump's willingness to
contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine.
And the Coalition
of the Willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share. We know
that the work of defending Europe is first and foremost our responsibility. And
we have been working hard to speed up and scale up as we increase Europe's
defense capability. Through the SAFE instrument, we are ensuring that the
defense needs of Member States and Ukraine can be matched and that Ukraine's
industrial defense base is strengthened. I am thinking in particular of drones
here. This is in our mutual interest, and I intend to travel to the frontline
Member States in the coming weeks. At the same time, we continue to support
Ukraine's path to its membership in the European Union. This in itself is also a
security guarantee.
My second point with regard to any territorial questions in Ukraine, our
position is clear: International borders cannot be changed by force. These are
decisions to be made by Ukraine and Ukraine alone, and these decisions cannot be
taken without Ukraine at the table.
My third and final point: As long as the bloodshed in Ukraine continues, Europe
will maintain diplomatic and, in particular, economic pressure on Russia. We
will continue to strengthen sanctions. We have adopted 18 packages so far, and
we are advancing preparation for the 19th. This package will be forthcoming in
early September. We know that sanctions are effective, we have already put
Russia's immobilized assets to work for the benefit of Ukraine, and we will
continue to put pressure on Russia's war economy to bring President Putin to the
negotiation table.
We are working with you, Volodymyr, and President Trump in this sense. We will
discuss all these topics and others in our joint meeting at the White House
tomorrow. These are challenging times; only Ukraine can choose its own destiny,
but Ukraine can always count on Europe.
Thank you so much.
PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY:
Dear Ursula, thank you for your support, thank you
for this day -- it’s very important, for all your support from the very
beginning of this war. It’s very important that you’re with us, and that we
speak to America, and we speak together. And it’s important that Washington is
with us. And today, in several formats, we’re deciding what we’re going to
discuss in Washington.
Dear journalists, it’s crucial that Europe is as united now as it was at the
very beginning, as it was in 2022 when the full-scale war began. This unity
really helps to reach real peace, and it must stay strong.
First. We have to stop the killings. Putin has many demands but we do not know
all of them. If there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to
go through them all. It is impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons.
So it’s necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal. We’ll talk
about it in Washington. Putin does not want to stop the killing. But he must do
it.
Second. We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front
line is now. The contact line is the best line for talking. And Europeans
support this, and we thank everyone. Russia is still unsuccessful in the Donetsk
region, Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years. And the Constitution of
Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land. Since the
territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of
Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral -- Ukraine, United States, Russia. So far,
Russia gives no sign the trilateral will happen, and if Russia refuses, then new
sanctions must follow.
Third. It’s important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide
security guarantees for Ukraine -- and we are very thankful to the United States
and to the President for such a signal -- and therefore for everyone in Europe.
This is a significant change. But there are no details how it will work -- what
America’s role will be, what Europe’s role will be, what the EU can do. And this
is our main task. We need security to work in practice, like Article 5 of NATO.
And we consider EU accession to be part of security guarantees. And we have
heard from President Trump that America and Putin see it the same way. So we
talked about the EU accession negotiations. There can be no division between
Ukraine and Moldova -- that would simply be a very bad move, to my mind. If such
a division takes place, it will automatically mean that Europe is divided on
Ukraine, that Europe does not have a common and strong position on guarantees.
Many in Europe see that division will only make things worse.
We talked about defense -- and thank you very much, dear Ursula. We agreed to
work more actively on programs such as SAFE. And I count on the support with
drones, first of all -- this is the priority.
Next. Thank you for the 18th package of sanctions. It is important. We need to
prepare the 19th package so that Russia sees that we are serious. We understand
Russia's strategic direction -- it is anti-European, and so we must continue to
limit Russia’s potential.
Finally. We talked about the support for Ukrainian children in schools. We have
a school meal program, and it is an important program that ensures that children
from every family in wartime at least receive security, and receive a normal hot
meal. The school year is coming soon. And I asked Ursula to help us improve this
program. It’s our children, it’s our future -- everything is for them.
Thank you!
Original von der Leyen Text Source:
ec.europa.eu
Original Zelenskyy Text Source: president.gov.ua/en
Original Audio and Video Source:
audiovisual.ec.europa.eu
Video Note: Frame interpolated
from 25fps to 50fps
Page Created:
8/17/25
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Text, Audio, Video of President van der Leyen = © European Union, 2025,
CC 4.0 International. Text of President Zelenskyy = Used in compliance with the terms found
here and licensed under
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Flag of Ukraine = Public domain.
