President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chaired a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which considered the security situation in Donbas and the introduction of new restrictive measures against a number of individuals and legal entities.
The Head of State said that seven issues were on the agenda of the National Security and Defense Council meeting today. The most important of these, which was considered confidentially, concerned the situation in the east of the country.
"The situation in Donbas is under control today. Indeed, there are questions. We are ready to answer these questions. The army is ready - this is the most important thing," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He noted that today a lot of false information about the events in Donbas is spread from various sources. Therefore, the President called for trusting only official sources.
"I would like Ukrainian citizens to trust only official statements - of our General Staff or the Office of the President of Ukraine," the President said.
The President also said that the issue of Donbas will be one of the main ones during his visit to France on Friday.
"I want to discuss some details tomorrow in person. And this is the main topic for me to discuss with President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to the President, after his meeting with the French counterpart in a vis-a-vis format, a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be held via video conference.
"It is an important meeting. So far, we have this kind of Normandy format," the President summed up.
According to the President, the National Security and Defense Council considered the introduction of new personal sanctions against smugglers as the second issue.
"Sanctions will be imposed on 12 individuals and legal entities. And this is not the finale either. We have had tons of smugglers over these 30 years. It feels like it's a separate profession. But the state did not make such a state order," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to him, the Security Service of Ukraine, in particular, is finding out the citizenship of these people and whether they have passports of other countries.
Also, the President noted, the National Security and Defense Council considered several economic issues. In particular, Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that the National Security and Defense Council and the Office of the President, in cooperation with the Antimonopoly Committee, develop a new bill on oligarchs.
"We did not have such a thing in Ukraine. I believe that today it is one of the priorities - to develop a fundamental bill on the status of the oligarch in our country: what will happen to these people, what sanctions will be applied, how the oligarchs will become businessmen. Because we support big business, any business in Ukraine. And the influence of the oligarchs on Ukraine - on the elections, on the economy, on the laws, on the Verkhovna Rada - this can no longer be allowed," the President stressed.
In the context of his recent fruitful visit to the Republic of Turkey, Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his support of Ukraine, our sovereignty and territorial integrity.
"We have signed a number of important documents. But the most important thing today, when we talk about the geopolitical issue, the issue of peace in Ukraine and the support of our partners, it is important that President Erdoğan supports Ukraine, supports our temporarily occupied territories, supports Crimea. It is important that he supports our position, does not recognize the annexation of Crimea," the Head of State stressed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that he also spoke with the President of Turkey about special conditions for Ukrainian and Turkish tourists.
"We are talking about increasing the tourist flow of citizens of Ukraine and Turkey. Especially now, I think we need to support each other. You have heard the Russians say that they will restrict tourism from the Russian Federation to Turkey. These are their personal affairs. And I think that we need, on the contrary, to increase tourism and show that we support Turkey," said the President of Ukraine.