Speeches

According to the information available now, two ballistic missiles hit the territory of an educational institution and a neighboring hospital. One of the buildings of the communications institute was partially destroyed. People were trapped under the rubble.

More than two million children will be able to study in the basic school format. Another million children will study in a mixed format: both offline and online. All of this depends on safety factors. Today, during our negotiations with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, we talked about exactly that – about strengthening air defense, about new air defense systems, and about missiles for them. About F-16s for Ukraine.

The terrorist state must feel what war is. We are working to ensure that as many Russian military facilities, logistics hubs, and critical components of their war economy as possible fall within the reach of our weapons.

Clearing the Ukrainian skies of Russian guided aerial bombs is a strong step to force Russia to seek an end to the war and a just peace. Ukrainian representatives provided all the necessary information, all the necessary details to our partners.

I am immensely grateful to all our military pilots, all engineers, all warriors of mobile firing groups, air defense units. All those who really fight for Ukraine – for the result. And the same goes for the command level – we must strengthen ourselves.

The courage of our people. The strength of the Ukrainian spirit. And the gratitude – of all our people, of our entire state – to every warrior. And to all fallen Ukrainian heroes who return home on their shields.

We continue to insist that their determination now – lifting the restrictions on long-range strikes for Ukraine now – will help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole.

The aftermath of the Russian strike is still being dealt with. In total, there were more than 120 missiles of various types and over a hundred Shahed drones. The missiles were launched from various locations, including the airspace over Kursk and Belgorod regions, other Russia’s border areas, the Black Sea, and the territory of our occupied Crimea.

Now, all over the country, efforts are underway to eliminate the consequences of the Russian strike. It was one of the heaviest strikes – a combined one. More than a hundred missiles of various types and about a hundred “Shahed” drones. And like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure.

All day today, the rubble in Kramatorsk was being cleared after a Russian missile strike. Among those injured were journalists, including a film crew from Reuters. Citizens of Ukraine, America and Britain.