President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese who visited our country.
As the Ukrainian President emphasized, this is the first visit of the Australian Prime Minister to Kyiv in the entire history of relations between the two countries.
"Of course, we would all like this visit to take place in peacetime and under other circumstances, but we appreciate and are grateful for your presence here with us at this time of Russia's war against the Ukrainian people," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a meeting with media representatives following the negotiations with Anthony Albanese.
According to the President, Australia supports Ukraine and international law and provides significant assistance to our country, including defense assistance.
"Our defenders highly appreciated, in particular, the Australian Bushmaster armored personnel carriers and other specific assistance from Australia. During the negotiations the Prime Minister confirmed an additional package of enhanced assistance," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said and thanked the head of the Australian government for the support.
The key topics of the negotiations in Kyiv were security cooperation between Ukraine and Australia and further protection of freedom.
"I informed Mr. Prime Minister about the situation on the frontline, about our capabilities, technical comparison, resistance to the occupiers. We must strengthen international cooperation in order to break Russia's aggressive potential. We must increase the sanctions pressure on the aggressor. I am grateful to Australia for its firm, unyielding position on this issue," said the President of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that with its aggression against Ukraine, Russia has created global threats that are felt in all regions of the world. So today, at a meeting with Anthony Albanese, the parties agreed to coordinate efforts to overcome the food crisis provoked by the Russian Federation by blocking Ukrainian ports.
The leaders also paid attention to economic challenges and the need to enhance macro-financial support for Ukraine. The President thanked the Prime Minister for his understanding of Ukrainian needs.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that an international conference dedicated to the reconstruction of Ukraine will start in Lugano (Switzerland) on Monday.
"The amount of work on the already liberated territories is truly colossal. And more than 2,000 settlements in the east and south of Ukraine have yet to be liberated. I offered Australia to take part in the post-war reconstruction and I am grateful for the willingness to join the implementation of this, I am sure, ambitious project," said the Head of State.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Australia emphasized that his visit demonstrates solidarity between the Australian and Ukrainian nations at the time of brutal aggression against Ukraine by Russia, which was not provoked and which is taking place in violation of international law and the UN Charter.
Anthony Albanese said that during his visit to Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, he saw with his own eyes the destruction of civilian objects and brutal violations of human rights as a result of this immoral war.
"Australia is ready to continue providing support to the Ukrainian state and its people for as long as it takes for Ukraine to gain an advantage and protect the law and order in which we all exist," he said.
The head of the Australian government announced that his country will increase military-technical assistance to Ukraine and will provide 14 more APCs and 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles, additional military equipment, drones and other military equipment as requested by our country.
Anthony Albanese also spoke about the readiness to join international investigations of Russia's crimes against Ukraine and to impose additional financial sanctions and travel bans on 16 more Russian officials and oligarchs.
"We will ban the import of Russian gold to reduce Russia's ability to finance this war," he said.
The Prime Minister of Australia emphasized that today's visit is the beginning of strong bilateral relations.
