Each day we are amassing more and more of the much needed strength, long-range strength – address by the President of Ukraine

14 March 2024 – 21:30

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today is one of those days when we are especially grateful to all our people who have chosen the path of defending Ukraine and our independence. Those who are fighting at the front, those who are working for defense, and thanks to whom Ukraine lives and achieves its goals. Moreover, it clearly and effectively brings this war back home to Russia, where the true cost of war must be felt. Today, on Ukrainian Volunteer Day, it is important to remember the bravery and dedication of all those who became defenders of Ukraine in 2014, who withstood the confrontation of that time, who preserved Ukraine in 2022 and who are now preserving and strengthening our positions and our entire state. Everyone who directs their will to protect the entire nation makes themselves a part of the great history of Ukraine, a nation and a state that will never disappear and will always be able to inspire the world from now on. I am proud of all our people who are fighting for Ukraine’s opportunity to live normally and freely. I thank each and every one of them. Today, I honored our warriors with awards – orders, the title of Hero of Ukraine, and the medal “For Military Service to Ukraine”. As of today, a total of 73,750 Ukrainians have been honored with state awards. Of course, this is only a part of the heroism of our people. Today, I had the opportunity to express gratitude to our defense industry workers – the people who have dedicated their lives to Ukrainian strength, who manufacture our weapons, which show results on the battlefield, at sea, and in air strikes on Russia’s war machine. I thank them for Ukrainian artillery shells, cannons, drones, for our missiles and electronic warfare systems. For everything that helps our warriors fight and saves Ukraine’s life and the lives of Ukrainians. We will have more weapons, shells, drones, and EW systems. Today, I met workers from one of our defense facilities. We do not talk about it officially. And now, during wartime, we cannot openly demonstrate our capabilities. We will, of course, openly express our gratitude after the war. These are the people who have found a way to significantly strengthen our country. And each day we are amassing more and more of this strength. The strength we need so much. The long-range strength.

One more thing.

Today I spoke with the German Chancellor. It was a very substantive and quite long conversation. I thanked Olaf for the assistance that Germany provides to our country. It is a multifaceted assistance. We coordinated our positions ahead of the trilateral meeting between Germany, France and Poland. Obviously, the meeting will be largely about Ukraine – about our common strength. We also discussed with Mr. Chancellor Scholz further joint work in the defense sector: the assistance that is needed and joint production of weapons – both at the state level and at the level of companies. Of course, we also talked about the European Union – our work to ensure that negotiations on Ukraine’s full accession begin as soon as possible. We are not losing a single day.

I thank everyone who is with Ukraine and in Ukraine!

Glory to our people!

Glory to Ukraine!

Today is Ukrainian Volunteer Day.

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1768299823889801690

We congratulate our brave warriors on Ukrainian Volunteer Day!

The willingness of Ukrainian men and women to voluntarily come to Ukraine’s defense was the decisive factor in withstanding the enemy’s onslaught.
We will stand and win.
Thank you for your service!
Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦

The EU:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1768208620011901323

France:

https://twitter.com/PedderSophie/status/1768363829472133143

https://twitter.com/PedderSophie/status/1768375441507615143

Here’s the full interview. I’ve got the closed captioning on and set to English.

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1768389798052381122

Emmanuel Macron is just kicking ass tonight.

Some of his words for the French TV:

“If Ukraine falls, our security will be at risk. If Russia continues to escalate, if the situation worsens, we must be ready, and we will be ready. To be prepared, we will make the necessary decisions to ensure that Russia never wins.”

“I want our compatriots to understand that there is only one person responsible for the situation we are in: it is the Kremlin regime. I am undoubtedly a responsible leader who has spoken with Vladimir Putin more than anyone else. We are not in fiction, this is not a novel or a TV series.”

“Therefore, if the war spreads, if the war spreads in Europe, it will be the only choice and responsibility of Russia. Of course, today Russia is an opponent. The Kremlin regime is an opponent. I have always said this, we are not waging war with Russia and the Russian people.

“And we support Ukraine. I will tell you very simply: there will be no lasting peace without sovereignty, a return to internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including Crimea.”

“Today, for there to be peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak, so we must soberly look at the situation and with determination, will, and courage say that we are ready to achieve our goal by the means that ensure Russia will not win. The responsibility lies with us.”

“If Russia wins, how will the lives of the French change? We will no longer have security in Europe. Who could think for a second that President Putin, who has respected none of these restrictions and none of his commitments, would stop at what has been achieved? The security of the French is at stake. These are our vital interests.”

We have helped Ukraine to resist. But now the context on Ukrainian soil is changing. For them, the situation is much more complicated. Russia is becoming tougher internally and is stepping up its attacks.

“What is at stake in Ukraine? A war that is existential for our Europe and for France. We have introduced too many restrictions, so to speak, into our vocabulary. We are not participating in the escalation. We are not in a state of war with Russia.

We just need to be clear: we must not allow Russia to win.”

What can I say — finally the words of a real European leader.

https://twitter.com/spooked75/status/1767787255974834260

Sweden:

https://twitter.com/SwedeninCZ/status/1768290634161414309

Washington DC:

Politico has reported that Speaker Johnson has a plan for a stand alone Ukraine supplemental.

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia — Speaker Mike Johnson told POLITICO that he expects to pass a future Ukraine assistance bill with Democratic votes, an acknowledgment of the persistent resistance to any new aid within the GOP.

Johnson said in a Thursday interview at the House Republican retreat that aid to both Ukraine and Israel could come up as one or even two separate bills. He said he anticipates it would happen using the House’s suspension calendar, which he’s used often in recent days to overcome pushback from his own party.

“I think it is a stand-alone, and I suspect it will need to be on suspension,” Johnson said of foreign assistance.

The Louisiana Republican added in clear terms that he sees no path to attaching the foreign aid to a larger spending bill to keep the government open.

The suspension calendar requires a two-thirds majority to approve legislation on the House floor — meaning Johnson would need a substantial number of Democratic votes. He has taken that approach with many contentious measures so far in his speakership.

He added in the interview that splitting Ukraine and Israel aid into two separate bills was “under consideration.”

The speaker’s remarks are the most definitive he has made so far on his plans for tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid that has languished in Congress for many weeks, even after the Senate cleared its own bipartisan package last month. They represent the clearest move Johnson has made to commit to a floor vote on Ukraine aid, despite significant disinterest in his own party in any new funding for Kyiv’s efforts against Russia.

Johnson has publicly stated that the House would turn to foreign aid after a government funding plan that’s expected to come to the floor of both chambers of Congress next week, with a partial shutdown deadline looming on March 22. While the political challenges of passing that funding bill have sparked questions about attaching foreign aid to a spending bill, he ruled out the idea.

“I don’t think leaders of either side of the aisle think that’s a viable option,” Johnson said in the interview.

He’ll certainly need to consult with Democrats to have any hope of passing foreign aid on the suspensions calendar, which GOP leaders have used for multiple high-stakes bills that would otherwise have failed to get the near-unanimous Republican support needed to pass along party lines. A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not immediately return a request for comment on the speaker’s remarks.

Johnson also projected optimism that lawmakers would be able to put to bed a six-month ordeal of avoiding a government shutdown. He said he didn’t expect that Congress would need another short-term spending patch, looking ahead to a release of that funding plan — including critical cash for the Pentagon — over the weekend.

CNN first reported that Johnson was weighing a stand-alone Israel aid bill. The House has already passed an Israel aid bill paired with IRS cuts that made it a non-starter in the Senate.

The speaker’s comments about foreign aid come as the Biden administration and other officials warn Ukraine is running out of ammunition in its fight against Russia. Taking up any aid bill in the House, however, would hand political weaponry to Johnson’s conservative critics, some of whom have warned that he could face a forced ouster vote if he moves forward on it.

More at the link, but it mostly deals with Johnson’s future as Speaker of GOP House Leader.

Moscow, which views Speaker Johnson and his majority caucus as useful idiots:

https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1768266069955780856

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1768323542750199843

So, Putin’s cartoonish Dr. Evil, aka Russia’s security council deputy chairman, and Putin’s party chairman, Dmitriy Medvedev, rolled out the Kremlin’s real “terms of peace” on Ukraine & the West.

I don’t even have to say anything.

Below is your answer to all that ‘WHY CAN’T UKRAINE JUST NEGOTIATE PEACE???’ chanting promoted by the Kremlin’s useful idiots.

I specifically love the parts where the ‘so-called former Ukraine’ must unconditionally surrender and pay reparations (!) to Russia and then ‘officially’ dissolve itself as a nation under a collaborationist ‘provisional parliament’ that will have to proclaim the entire territory as Russian territory — and with the UN having to ‘recognize’ all this.

Here we go:

“About the ‘peace formula’ of Kyiv’s Nazis, Swiss ‘peace conferences’, and the real basis for negotiations.

When I hear the phrase ‘Zelensky’s peace formula,’ I experience an overwhelming sense of disgust, quickly transitioning into a feeling of shame due to the bad surrealism of what is happening.

After all, everyone understands, including the brazen Western liars, that even in much simpler situations during war, peace can only be achieved either through the mutual will of the parties based on reasonable compromise or by the capitulation of one of the conflict’s sides.

There appears to be no will for negotiations from what is called the former Ukraine, at least based on the recognition of realities, as Vladimir Putin mentioned yesterday.

For them, the reality is the brain-twisting ‘peace formula’ of a provincial clown in green tights. And nothing else. This looks so artificial that the only solution is to construct your own, Russian formula, calm and quite realistic.

Humane for everyone.

What could it be? For example, this:

1. Recognition by the former ‘Ukraine’ of its defeat in the military component of the conflict. Full and unconditional surrender of f. ‘Ukraine’ in the person of the neo-Nazi clique in Kyiv. Demilitarization of former ‘Ukraine’ and prohibition on the creation of militarized formations on its territories in the future.

2. Recognition by the international community of the Nazi nature of the former Kyiv political regime and conducting UN-controlled compulsory denazification of all former ‘Ukraine’s’ government bodies.

3. UN acknowledgment of former ‘Ukraine’s’ loss of international legal capacity and the impossibility of its successors joining military alliances without Russia’s consent.

4. Resignation of all constitutional bodies of f. ‘Ukraine’ and immediate elections for a temporary parliament of the self-governing territory under the UN’s aegis of former ‘Ukraine.’

5. The temporary parliament’s enactment of laws regarding the payment of all due compensations to Russia, including payments to the relatives of deceased citizens of our country and payments for injuries to wounded individuals. Establishment of the procedure for compensating property damage inflicted on entities of the Russian Federation.

6. The temporary parliament of former Ukraine’s’ official recognition that its entire territory is the territory of the Russian Federation. Adoption of the act of reunification of the territories of former ‘Ukraine’ with Russia.
7. Dissolution of the temporary parliament. UN recognition of the act of reunification.

Such could be the soft Russian peace formula.

This is a compromise position, right? I believe it is precisely along these lines that a friendly consensus with the international community, including the Anglo-Saxon world, can be sought to conduct productive summits, counting on the mutual understanding of our close friends – Western partners.”

Yep, Nazi war criminals were also very sure of themselves and very brazen in their time — up until a moment a noose started gently touching their necks in Nuremberg.

Kreminna, Russian occupied Luhansk Oblast:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1768254666167455850

The Avdiivka front:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1768232179622949077

 

Belgorod and Kursk Oblasts:

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1768331960437325937

Democratic forces issued a green corridor for residents of border areas of Belgorod and Kursk regions, and it seems that people have listened: civilians en masse leaving Graivoron towards Belgorod.

Russia dem. forces including RDK promised mass assault against communist military at 7am tomorrow when the green corridor expires.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1768259641178304626

Governor of Belgorod region closed all shopping centres in the city of Belgorod in light of the ongoing special military operation of the Russian democratic forces. He’s also encouraging people to avoid any non-essential travel.

Today is the 749th day of the 3-day operation to take Kyiv.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1768257631993430203

Here’s the machine translation of Sternenko’s tweet:

BNR, Spodaryushyno village. Occupants from the army of the Kremlin junta capture the rebels, raising a white flag. Geolocated by Cyberflour

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1768211100649115738

If you’re just waking up and don’t understand what’s happening in Belgorod: around 6am local time there started shelling of the city and other settlements of the region. Meanwhile, imperial russian sources also tell about clashes against democratic Russian forces at the border. The extent of the clashes and the intentions of democratic forces is not fully clear but they’re unlikely to be entering any majors settlements. As of now though, reports of shelling continue coming through.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1768201111456899300

Now we watch and wait to see what happens in Belgorod and Kursk overnight and how Russia responds.

That’s enough for tonight.

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♬ wula magaria – Mari

Open thread!