I am certain that sooner or later Ukraine will lose these western lands, and what belong to Poland, belong to Hungary, belong to Romania. Sooner or later, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after, a year, 2, 10, 15, but everything will historically fall into place. There was only one guarantor of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and that was Russia. But they saw fit, deemed it possible and beneficial for themselves to declare Russia their enemy and to declare Russians in Ukraine a non-titular nation, which is complete nonsense, utter rubbish. We did not start any war. We only began to respond to the hostilities to this war which was unleashed by the current Kyiv regime with the support of the West against the southeast, the then southeast of Ukraine which had always looked toward Russia. Well, you know, historically it was always divided into left bank and right bank Ukraine. The left bank was always considered not just oriented toward Russia but a part of Russia. Yes. And as for the Donbas, I have already said I read those very archival documents when the Soviet government decided at the request of Donbas representatives to include them in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. And then from the more western parts the Bolsheviks also arrived. Yes. And persuaded Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to give this part to the forming, being created Ukraine. And to the question from the Donbas representatives, 'How can this be? We agreed that the Donbas should be with Mother Russia.' Vladimir Ilyich replied, 'Well, we already decided.' They said the answer was, 'We need to redecide.' So they redecided. Now you and I have to, you have to, well, return everything to a normal historical course. I have heard many times that Ukraine is searching for its identity. But the question arises why must this identity be found on the basis of Nazism and neo-Nazism?
Now I will get to the main point. This neo-Nazism which has migrated to the so-called anti-Russian, anti-Soviet centers, and nationalism and neo-Nazism, they stood very close to each other. They became intertwined. And when the current regime began to rely precisely on this part of society and this ideology, it automatically transferred into the minds of those who are fighting. We need to imbue the consciousness of our society, the consciousness of the people with the importance of the cause you serve. And you serve the motherland. What could be more important than the motherland? What could be more important than what you are doing right now? Well, nothing. Because you are defending the motherland and you are on the front line. And it is even harder for you right now than it is for me. Because no matter how difficult it was for me, you are still risking your lives almost every day. And of course the country must know about this. I am in such a position, in such a place where all the information that exists flows together.
Therefore from officials, from your commanding officers, from you or from guys like you, fighters like you, commanders whom I managed to see sometimes, not often, but nevertheless, information from intelligence services that monitored the situation in all combat sectors and in the country as a whole. Information from the media, public pages, bloggers, there are all kinds of people. There are bloggers whom I sometimes even enjoy watching. I don't have the time but when I come across them I watch and honestly sometimes I am glad. Great. Well done. They hit the nail right on the head. There are such people. First of all, I base my conclusions on what I receive from official sources. Although I draw my final conclusions from analyzing the entire volume of information that comes to me. I am certain that sooner or later Ukraine will lose these western lands and what belonged to Poland, belonged to Hungary, belonged to Romania. Sooner or later, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after, a year, 2, 10, 15, but everything will historically fall into place.
There was only one guarantor of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and that was Russia. But they saw fit, deemed it possible and beneficial for themselves to declare Russia their enemy and to declare Russians in Ukraine a non-titular nation, which is complete nonsense, utter rubbish. The modern world order was shaped after the Second World War, after the Great Patriotic War, based on the United Nations charter. And the charter was formed by the victorious countries: the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain. This charter is the foundation of modern international law. It was created and certain rules were established. And then when the Soviet Union was dismantled, one of the founding states of the United Nations, one of the states that founded the United Nations and created this international law, this system of international relations, it ceased to exist. Well, in Russia, people proceed from the fact that sailors are, after all, a special family, a special caste in the best sense of the word. Attempts to isolate Russia, even in such a sensitive sphere as defense and security, are a complete failure. There are a great many countries that are friendly toward Russia, understanding the tasks we are addressing in terms of ensuring our security and strengthening a multipolar world. And this is important for the overwhelming majority of participants in international affairs. And the fact that the number of our joint exercises is growing speaks volumes. We feel very calm and confident because international law is on our side and we have the full capacity to defend our interests.
Yes, at some point much was lost. Franz Josef Land, there are a few Russian islands. Meantime, when we began to restore our presence there, there were already organized foreign tourist routes. And when telling tourists about these territories, guides would talk about anything except the fact that this territory belongs to the Russian Federation. Everyone started getting used to the idea that Russia was not there. But this is ours and we are there. See, we set up border posts there and began to restore our presence accordingly. And when I said that international law is entirely on our side, it means that this is a legitimate part of sovereign Russian territory. We are developing economic activity there. We must act with extreme caution to protect our economic interests there. As you well know, the Arctic environment is very fragile, very... so we must use the latest technologies which our companies are doing for resource extraction. That is the first point. The second is the logistics potential of the northern sea route. We have never sought any kind of confrontation in this part of the world. On the contrary, we have always invited everyone interested to work together, to work within the framework of international law. We are ready to do this together with everyone. But of course, based on the fact that these routes certainly belong to the Russian Federation, for this we also have the technical capabilities.
This is well known. No other country in the world has such an icebreaker fleet. I believe no one else has nuclear-powered icebreakers at all, but we do. Starting with the Lenin icebreaker. Now the so-called Leader is being built, which will break through unprecedentedly thick ice. No one else in the world has anything like it. And if someone says they intend to build something somewhere, well, high-tech countries could probably do it, but it will take years, years, maybe decades. Well, God grant everyone health. Let them work. We do not mind. But we are ready. We are open to cooperation in this sphere, but of course we will protect our interests just like the northern sea route because it is the most effective, economically viable route.
The northern sea route largely runs either through our territorial waters or the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation. That is, it is almost entirely under our control. Well, not almost, but entirely. We all know Lomonosov's words well, that Russia's wealth will grow through Siberia. Now, without any exaggeration, we can say that Russia's wealth will grow through the Arctic. It is difficult to measure the quantity now and it is hard to estimate the value of the reserves in monetary terms. The reserves of what the Arctic is rich in.
We have and have long had ships with small displacement and tonnage, but they are equipped with modern weapons. Well, the Kalibrs are striking and striking hard. Yes, they hit accurately in essence from small boats, from small ships, and it is possible to make them even smaller. And new weapons are appearing that can be used to equip these ships and boats. And we have the technologies too. We are developing both underwater and surface drones and they are working very effectively, including in the combat zone. I can tell you that with confidence. The fleet must be balanced and now more than ever it must be balanced. We need to understand what should be effectively used in which zone. But for large ships, the submarine fleet and large surface vessels, there is not just a place. They will certainly remain the foundation for the development of the fleet as a whole. Especially since new weapons and defensive systems are appearing on large ships as well. Well, the Zircon alone is worth mentioning. There is still work to be done on it. We need to look at its accuracy, but recent use shows that it is becoming more and more precise. Well, it is a hypersonic missile and few countries in the world possess such weapons. And we not only have them, we are improving them and will continue to do so.
