BomDing

This past week alone, Russia has used more than 2,300 attack drones, 1,590 aerial bombs, and 15 missiles of various types against Ukraine. Brutal strikes that are difficult to counter. Overnight and into this morning, the Russians targeted energy infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia and the Sumy, Odesa, Zhytomyr, and Kirovohrad regions. Railway infrastructure in the Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions also came under attack. Russia also carried out strikes on the Donetsk and Kyiv regions. Sixteen people have been reported injured. The Russians are targeting substations with “shaheds.” And many of these strikes are getting through because restrictions on the operating speed of Starshield terminals along the front line and in the temporarily occupied territories are still there. Our interceptor drones lose connection with their operators at a speed of 161 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour) and simply cannot catch up with Russian jet-powered “shaheds.” We are counting on these restrictions being lifted. The protection of lives and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter directly depends on this. The teams of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the Presidential Office have been instructed to work as closely as possible with the American side and SpaceX. It is important to be on the right side of history. It is essential to help Ukraine. Thank you to everyone who supports our defense.

I met with mayors from cities across Ukraine – from all parts of the country – including Kharkiv, Dnipro, Uzhhorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv, and Vinnytsia. Also present were acting mayors of Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk, and Rivne, as well as the Executive Director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, the President of the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils, and the Head of the Kharkiv Regional Council. Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi was there as well. This was the first dialogue in this format, and it will now take place regularly. Preparing cities and communities for the winter period is a priority, especially given Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s critical and transportation infrastructure and residential buildings. Energy, air defense, internal security threats, reliable communications, and helping our people – all of this needs to be protected, restored, and ensured. We openly discussed all the challenges we face now and those that may lie ahead. We talked about how we will respond at the central level and at the regional and local government levels. The key is to ensure that accurate information about what is happening on the ground reaches us promptly from every region and city, and that the necessary decisions are made accordingly. We also discussed finding mechanisms to help people who may face hardship during the winter. It is also important to preserve the financial capacity of communities. The main thing is to work together and deliver real results for Ukrainian society and our state. I thank everyone who is doing exactly that.

A new €645 million defense package and a €20 million energy package from Denmark. New sanctions steps by the United Kingdom targeting Russia's oil sector. We've returned home with concrete results from our busy visits to Denmark and Ireland. Together with the team, we held many meetings. We spoke with all our European partners about how to help Ukraine get through this winter. We discussed what each of them can do to strengthen air defense and support our energy sector and railways. It's important that our partners are listening to us. We're working with the European Union to close the remaining two negotiation clusters by the end of this year and accelerate our next steps in the coming year. We discussed this with President of the European Council António Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. There were also important conversations with the prime ministers of Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Czechia, as well as with the President of Lithuania. In Dublin, we also held meetings aimed at bringing peace closer – with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. I thank our partners for their support and willingness to continue helping us. We are defending Europe. We are fighting for Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!