Speech of Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the meeting of the European Council.

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Thank you very much. Thank

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you very much, dear Antonio Ursula Mikho.

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All the leaders

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of the European Union, our friends, all the Europeans, thank you for your support for Ukraine. Thank you. And we have been through

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a lot

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together during these years of war. None

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of us wanted

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this war, absolutely none of us. We have to deal

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with its

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brutality and all

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the instability

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it has caused. Unity in defence is always built by many, many standing together. And without a decisive European Union, a strong

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decision, Putin

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would have gone much

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further by now. The European Union

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has not fallen apart.

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The

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European Union

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has not fallen apart and has not given in to fear when

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it came

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to

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defending the European way of life and this is of little importance, just like the courage of the Ukrainians. Dear friends, Europe is a continent of democracy and year after year things change, new leaders come to power, coalitions change and a lot of things happen, but nothing ever changes. Every year Putin stays where he is and he continues to wage war. Some of today's European leaders, some of the people who are running in the elections, taking part in the political process in your countries, were still at school when Putin was already at war.

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And even back when Bill

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Clinton was still president of the United States, he was already at war against the Chechens. That war taught Putin a

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If he uses oil and gas to try to conquer the world, many politicians will look the other way, even when cities are turned into ruins and villages are burned to the

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That is exactly how

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Putin has been running

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things ever since.

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He always has

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some excuse

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why he can't live in peace with one country or another.

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And

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all this time his real opponent has never been just one country. His real enemy is the international motivation. A war where

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one sick man

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doesn't get to wage war, a war where

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he wants and

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lies as much as he likes to stay in the world. That is why it is important to stay in power

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for

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the rest of your life. That is why the EU and your unity and every independent country is the target for him. Not because someone wants to offend Russia or fear something he

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wanted.

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Putin fights only with those who want to wage war

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themselves

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and have no respect for human life. If Putin wins, everything that keeps you together and

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gives

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your people the opportunity to live in peace will simply be gone. Look at what he has said all these years. He has a problem with everything

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that

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happened after 1985. We don't want to go back there. It is

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important that people understand this

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across the EU. From Poland, Finland and Nordic countries to France, Spain, Italy. We can argue and disagree on politics. Sometimes we have serious disagreements on certain decisions. That is normal for democracy. I am sure of it.

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Despite all our defenses,

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we all want the

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security system that really

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works and can deal with today's

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So, in the world now, to finally stop Putin, we are doing this not just for Ukraine. We are working on security guarantees for the whole of Europe. Guarantees that this war

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will not be passed down to

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our children. I am grateful to every one of you

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who does not miss

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the tanks, the tanks that suffocated the uprising in Prague, Budapest or the Berlin Wall. I am grateful to every one of you who has never even thought about giving up Europe just to buy a year or two of false calm before Putin comes back with his next goal. I am grateful to all of you

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who

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feel

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for

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Ukrainians when Russian sheikhs and missiles kill our people. I am grateful to every one of you for the support that helps us recover from the Russian attacks. I am grateful to all of

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you who

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are trying to keep Europe and the United States together. There are so many people with good hearts in America. There are so many people in America who are able

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to stand strong. These are the very

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hearts that want to

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defend its freedom, and that

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for sure, Ukraine stood strong. These are the hearts that helped Europe defend its freedom, and these are the hearts that fought during the times of our fathers, who won the war that wants the best for Europe, the hearts that want to be allies, and

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I believe

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most Americans still feel the same, and at the end of the day, the American

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people

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will have their say.

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Soon,

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and Putin will listen

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to

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America if America really increases the pressure on him to express his peace because he has no more money for his war. Dear leaders, we all want this war to end as quickly as possible. We want diplomacy to work. It is important that we all keep working together and stay in coordination. We also have to be ready to work towards what Putin is pushing us with his ballistic missiles,

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his

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endless, mindless assaults on the front lines and his threats and his attempts to weaken the world's pressure on Russia. Putin says he is ready to stop the war, and what this really means is the capitulation of Ukraine,

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yet he

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is ready to bring this war to an

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end next

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year, and we are ready for

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this

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next year. First of all, I call on

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you

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not to weaken the sanctions against Russia or anyone linked to it. Putin will use every trick he can find to get more money, to make more weapons. Everything he has from the oligarchs to the shadow fleet, to all schemes,

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equipment, components and equipment to make drones and missiles, all of this has to be under sanctions and severe control. We have warned that if sanctions are weakened in Europe, others will quickly take advantage of

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it. And

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now we can see how the cash will start flowing back in Russia through the Russian diesel deal. This diesel deal will never enough to offset the impact on global markets.

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We need more money

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strained in Putin's

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pocket

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to fund this war. And we need a strong 22nd sanctions package from the

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Please,

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we

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need real sanctions against every company and every person involved in the production of Russian missiles, advanced communications systems and drones.

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And those involved

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in the Russian financial system. So now Putin put together a federal budget to spend

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even

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more money for this war. We have to fight back against it, so we know how to do it with technology.

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It costs

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much less and helps stop the operation against Ukraine and against you.

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The war

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will cost 155 billion euros next year. And

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we

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need at least 70 billion euros from you for defense, for our weapons and for our resilience. This is a realistic sum and I ask you to find this support. It will help us

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to

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support Russia back. And there are some very simple facts. We stop most Russian assaults

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on

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the front thanks to drones. And we cut Russian logistics with these technologies. And our drones help to weaken the Russian economy.

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now we could

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produce two or three or more drones depending on the type of drone, but we simply don't have enough money for that. Just imagine if we could put more pressure on Russia than we do today. Please invest in defense in our factories in Ukraine and of course in our joint production of drones

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and

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other weapons in your countries. So we really need at least 70 billion euros added next year. Next. You have a bubble tool, tool to support Ukraine on the front to help us build

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defense

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together. Russian frozen assets. Most of them are in European hands and it's wonderful that we already have a European position. Thank you very much for supporting Russian assets. It works, it helps. But we need to go further. We need to make sure that all of these assets, the whole amount, are protected and can actually be used. And believe me, if Europe doesn't make this move, Putin will find a way

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to

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get to that money. Then he

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will use, of course,

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assets to fund his war against us and his operations against you. And you can already see the diversions of drones in Europe, what has happened in Leipzig airport in Germany, what is happening on the ground and in the seas of other European countries, as well as the borders where new threats continue to emerge. We can't allow him to get more money. So we need to deal with Russian frozen assets. We need something of a different kind, something of a subcontracted body

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of the

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to

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clearly reduce

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the risk that the assets will be defrosted and divided among those who do not want the best for Europe or the end of this war. Fourth, please use every opportunity to strengthen

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our

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PPO. Putin has started his winter operation against our energy system. Massively, right now, in October, and people

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are

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left without electricity because of Russian ballistic missiles that continue to hit our energy facilities and water supply and energy facilities. And I really ask you to focus on helping us with PAK-2 and PAK-3. Ukraine cannot survive just two or four missiles from one country every few months. Of course, we are all grateful to you, but I think you should understand this. So, please, let the European countries already have it. Let it be used to protect our lives. We need a winter package. We always talk about this between us.

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A package of

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300 missiles, specifically against ballistic missiles. And this is really important. And not just for Ukraine. This is strategically important for what will happen next, after this winter with Ukraine and Russia and Europe. We also started our anti-ballistic program FREYA. It's a Ukrainian program, but it's also a European program. And it has to become an instrument of anti-ballistic missiles

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that

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we can produce together

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in

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large quantities. Effective, affordable, easy to produce and easy to modernize. Of course, we will do it. Of course, we will share it with

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all of

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you, dear partners. And thank you to all of you who are already working on this program. I would like FREYA to move forward. Let's move on quickly. Europe needs to think seriously about its technological independence. We need to find the best way to protect our common interests in technology, to protect Europe in the technological world and to develop everything that makes us stronger. We already unite our forces in many areas, and we need to do more

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together in

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exchange of intelligence, communication and development of new technologies. A few more things. I would like to thank the Ukrainian members of parliament and government who despite all the difficulties made the decisions we need to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union. Ukraine is doing more than anyone else to move to membership in the EU. We are fighting for ourselves and for the European way of life in the real war, in the front line. Every single day we are fighting Russian attacks. At the same time, we are changing our country from the inside. We are fighting for Europe, and we are always making sure that European interests are felt all over the world at the time when one of the most powerful players in the world would like the EU not to exist. Look at what is happening here in Europe. Every anti-European movement here in Europe gets serious money and technical support from abroad. Ukraine is always fighting this with real actions. That's why we are stronger together.

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That's

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not all. We are doing a lot to make our region stable. We are protecting Moldova from Russian attempts

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to

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create problems through Transnistria. This

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requires

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serious work from our security services and intelligence. Sometimes we even have to pull some of our military forces from other tasks to keep Transnistria under control and help Moldova remain stable and independent. That's another way Ukraine makes Europe stronger. When Ukraine and Moldova are moving so close together, it's going to be great when we

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do so

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much to support Moldova and create the conditions that are needed. It's going to be wrong to split us on our way to the EU. I hope it won't happen. It's morally wrong. I want to thank all of you who understand this, and we are grateful for the

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the EU

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is coming to us.

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Four EU

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access clusters have already been opened this year, and we need to open two more by the end of this year. We are ready, and we are thankful to all of

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you,

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dear Ursula, Antonia, and all the leaders for this support. We are ready

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to

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continue to do what we need to do, reforms at home, of course. Our goal is to get a positive assessment within the High Bar as soon as possible and do it right. We have already established a special working group with our European friends. It was yesterday. It's a team that can work on joint decisions and specific steps to move things forward. Finally, something about the long-term perspective. Yesterday you had detailed discussions about the EU budget starting in 2008. I have already talked about the security guarantees that are needed in Europe, guarantees that really work and can be responsible for every threat. Today it's impossible to imagine a real security guarantee for Europe without the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian technology and experience. We are already doing a lot together through joint production of weapons, and this helps you see how important Ukrainians are. We are ready to share our experience, our data, which we obtained in this war. This is very important for future decisions on technology and, of course, our strategy. We have our format Drone Deals, and we are ready to share it with all the EU countries. Yes, we believe that this war will end as soon as possible, but Putin plans to stick around

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longer. He is building Russia that looks like North Korea, where children are raised from an

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early age

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for war and death for their leader. So Russia will not stop being dangerous. And this is our Ukrainian strength, our army, our technology, which helps to guarantee European security, your security. These guarantees are not yet reflected

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in

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our opinion in your budget

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for

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28 years to come. So let's talk seriously about this, let's work out how the Ukrainian defense capabilities should be included in this budget. Ukraine will be in the EU. Yes, more and more people understand

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that we

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and our country need NATO as

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well, but we have what we have,

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simply because Ukrainians can give results, and we need to consider this reality at every level. Thank you for your support, dear friends, and Ukraine wants

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to

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further strengthen the European Union. Thank you. Glory to Ukraine!

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Thank you.