PRESS RELEASE : President – By strengthening the Ukrainian army, international partners are helping themselves as well

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 17 February 2022.

Ukraine not only defends its territory, but also deters further encroachments in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the weapons provided to our country by international partners are an aid to them as well, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview for RBC-Ukraine.

“Army funding is top priority. Training, rehabilitation, etc. A powerful independent army on the territory of Eastern Europe, on the territory of Ukraine, which protects not only Ukraine because it restrains any further encroachments. But today all this is the expenditure of the budget of Ukraine. Except for some of the weapons our partners supply. But I say again: they help themselves. And we are grateful to them. Without their help, the situation would be clearly worse,” the Head of State said.

The President stressed that Ukraine does not live “in the illusion that everyone will be willing to die for it,” and if the aggression begins, it will be ready to defend itself.

“We definitely do not want this. We emphasize: we do not need military people with foreign flags on our territory. We do not ask for this. Otherwise there will be destabilization all over the world. We do not want to give an extra reason for the Russian Federation to say that we have bases here and that they need to “protect” themselves. But we want everything else,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.