Petro Poroshenko spoke at the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party, which is taking place in Vilnius. The fifth President urged European partners to accelerate the transition of their economies to wartime footing and to use Ukraine’s experience in countering Russian aggression.
Source: PRYAMYI
“For three and a half years, we have been learning to live under the conditions of Russian ballistic missiles. And this surprised Putin, because he thought – this would break us. Russian troops, Russian missiles – no, it did not break us. Mathematically, we had no chance of surviving. But war is not about mathematics. War is about fighting spirit,” Poroshenko said.
“We must never give Putin the right of veto. The European Union must be sovereign, responsible, including being responsible for its own security. And we, Ukrainians, are ready to actively participate in this process. We are ready to send military advisors, combat generals to your governments, who have unique experience on how to fight Russia now, which weapons, strategies, and technologies to use, and how to most effectively allocate funds to the defense industry. We, Ukrainians, want to help you switch your economy to a military footing,” Poroshenko noted.
“Russia spends over 40% of its large budget on war. Our request to the Baltic countries, Scandinavia, and Germany is to add 0.5% to the Ukrainian defense industry. This would be responsible behavior, including using Russia’s frozen assets. In this area, we must also be more decisive, because the war is already here,” the fifth President emphasized.
“We need weapons and ammunition, and we are launching joint production. We need drones, missiles, and counter-drone systems. We know how to produce them, and we have unique and positive experience. We need defense – not outdated, but modern and effective. We need protection for energy networks, diversification, and decentralization of our energy system. We know how to do it. And we need sanctions against Russia. Hellish sanctions,” the party leader stressed.
“We have already learned to live without Russian gas. And we must learn to live without Russian oil and Russian nuclear energy. Including the ‘Druzhba’ pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Europe, to Hungary and Slovakia through Ukrainian territory. We must learn to live without this. And we must learn to live without Russia,” Poroshenko urged.
“We will never return under Russian influence. And we need to become a NATO member state, regardless of who is in Washington, Paris, or any other country, we need this. Because without Ukraine’s NATO membership, there cannot be a stable security situation on the continent. Believe me, there is simply no other form of security guarantee besides NATO. No bilateral security guarantees work, because bilateral security guarantees concern weapons, money, and the defense industry, but not security. Because security is ‘boots on the ground.’ This means that in the event of aggression, soldiers from across NATO must be side by side to defend against the aggressor. But this does not exist in bilateral security guarantees. And therefore we must be mature, we must be responsible. This is why we need to be anti-populist winners. And this is why we must together win this war against Putin,” Petro Poroshenko concluded.
As is known, the European People’s Party is the largest political union in the European Union, including 82 parties and partners from 43 countries, the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament, 20 heads of states and governments of EU and non-EU countries, 9 members of the European Commission, and the largest group in the European Parliament. The party “European Solidarity” officially joined the European People’s Party in 2019, and on March 10, 2023, “European Solidarity” received the status of an associate member of the European People’s Party.
Discussion about this post