Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva held a meeting with Austria’s Deputy Minister for European and International Affairs and Special Commissioner for Ukraine’s Recovery Elisabeth Kornfeind.

The key topics of the meeting included supporting the energy sector amid ongoing Russian attacks, building shelters in schools and kindergartens, improving border crossing points, and providing housing for internally displaced persons who lost their homes due to Russian aggression.

We are already actively preparing for negotiations with our partners – both European and American – starting on Wednesday.

Today marks an important event for our region and for Europe as a whole. The Baltic states – good friends of Ukraine – have disconnected from the Russian energy grid. Their energy systems are now fully synchronized with the European continental system.

The main topics of the meeting were preparations for the next meeting in the Ramstein format and our state's defense needs.

We must see together what the threats are and what countermeasures we have. We need a clear understanding: here in Europe, every country will have to strengthen its defense, and the target of 5% of GDP for defense will not disappear from the agenda.

As part of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Bring Kids Back UA initiative and the Stolen Voices information campaign, a Ukrainian delegation led by Daria Herasymchuk, Advisor – Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, visited Botswana.