The memorandum. Please. I invite the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Dragan Glamocic, and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine in the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Alexander Litvinenko, to sign the memorandum. Please come. Ladies and gentlemen, today's signing ceremony is over. I ask the President of the Republic, Mr. Alexander Vučić, to address us. Mr. President, please. The signing ceremony is over. Thank you.
Dear President Zelenskyy, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor and pleasure that we can host the President of Ukraine today in Belgrade, yesterday as well, and this is after eight years the last visit of a President of Ukraine, and I am very happy that we had the opportunity to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, a friendly country, and I believe that everything we discussed regarding the improvement of our bilateral relations in all areas of social life will bear fruit after the meetings we had yesterday and today. We talked about various topics. What I think is most important is that Serbia, and I as its president, have emphasized that we support the Charter of the United Nations, the resolution of the United Nations, which means the territorial integrity of all member countries of the United Nations, which also means the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
And we are also very grateful to Ukraine for supporting the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia, and as for us, we will continue to pursue such a principled policy. There is no dilemma about that whatsoever. We discussed the European path of Serbia and Ukraine. As far as Serbia is concerned, Ukraine will always have our country's full support on its European path. We do not make comments in which we would stop anyone else because we cannot open some cluster. We wish Ukraine to open all clusters as soon as possible and close them as soon as possible. That is the desire of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian leadership, and as far as we are concerned, we have never had nor will we have any problem with that in the future. On the contrary, everything we can do to help Ukraine on its European path, we will do.
We have significantly raised the level of trade exchange between our countries. Last year, it amounted to around 450 million US dollars. Already this year, in the first six months, it is significantly higher, around 321 million US dollars. And I believe that the most significant import product from Ukraine is iron ore. I believe that through cooperation in agriculture, energy, and all other areas, this trade exchange can be much larger. We also talked about joint projects in infrastructure, the engagement of Ukrainian companies on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, and I believe we can achieve good and very significant results in the future. When I say this, I was truly fascinated by the railway network that Ukraine has. Recently, when I went to Kyiv, I believe that we can learn a lot from Ukraine in this regard, from their state companies as well, and that we can work together on improving our railway network in Serbia.
We talked about various forms and levels of humanitarian aid. So, with everything we have done so far, you can always do more, and I believe our Ukrainian friends will be somewhat satisfied in the future. We have already allocated significant aid in medicines. I believe that regarding the energy sector and the various appliances needed for Ukraine, especially for the winter period, we will help as much as we can. Also, I wish to say that I am grateful to the Ukrainian President for the support he always gives to Serbia on its European path. I must say for the citizens of Serbia that neither from Volodymyr Zelenskyy nor from anyone else have you ever heard a single bad word about our country, and I am extremely grateful to our Ukrainian friends for that.
I believe that in the coming period, in mining and energy, especially in agriculture, we can achieve significant results. For us, it is important when we not only export iron ore but also commercial soy and soy meal, or flaxseed, or when we export fruit seedlings, sunflower seeds, children's food, to raise the level of cooperation to as high a level as possible. The last thing I can say is that I expressed hope that after the end of the war, I believe our cooperation will be much stronger and greater, and on the foreign policy level, we can jointly export certain things and appear on third markets, especially on the African and Asian continents. I believe we have important conversations ahead in the future where we can additionally agree on such forms of cooperation.
We had a long conversation last night. Today we had a very good conversation. I am grateful to President Zelenskyy for visiting Serbia. I hope we were good hosts, and I wish to believe that our future meetings will be incomparably better than they have been until today. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. President. I invite the President of Ukraine, Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to address us.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Dear journalists, Alexander, your team, and dear Serbia, I want to thank you for your respect for us, for Ukraine, for your respect and hospitality, for supporting our people, first of all, supporting our state, our independence, territorial integrity. We appreciate this very much. The situation in Ukraine is not simple. At night, there was again a missile attack, ballistic missiles against our infrastructure. There were also attack drones, in particular Shahed drones, again targeting energy facilities, our railways. Trains are delayed across the country, and there were strikes against civilian enterprises. To this day, the liquidation of the consequences of the strikes continues, putting out fires.
In the morning, I had a briefing. Shelling occurred in all front-line communities. Unfortunately, 13 people died from these strikes on Ukraine in just 24 hours, from 9 a.m. yesterday to 9 a.m. today. And this is indeed a terrible tragedy, a tragedy of Russian aggression against independent Ukraine. My condolences to all relatives and loved ones. 77 people were injured in our regions. 12 regions were under attacks practically every night, every day. For the fifth year now, we in Ukraine are forced to go through all these attacks. Russian strikes are directed in the majority against facilities that work for the life of the people. We have practically no undamaged power stations left, many train stations, destroyed hospitals, universities, ordinary civilian enterprises.
At such a time of war, we appreciate and are very grateful for all the support Ukraine receives from other countries, from other peoples. And, of course, we develop all formats of cooperation that can give our people, our cities, our communities more resilience, more capacity to withstand all the challenges of the war. We are grateful that there will be a new package of humanitarian support from Serbia to Ukraine, especially in the field of medicine, in the field of energy. This is very important for us. Thank you, Mr. President.
Yesterday evening and today, with the President, we talked about our bilateral cooperation with Serbia, about things that can add strength to our infrastructure, our ports, our railways in both countries, overall our economies and our security. There are concrete projects in infrastructure development and also in reconstruction, primarily in Ukraine, which we can implement together. This will be substantial from the point of view of preserving and creating new and decent jobs in Ukraine and in Serbia. We also talked about cooperation in food security. No matter what happens, we must give people all the possibilities to live.
We also talked about the challenges of this winter for Ukraine, when we have practically no whole thermal power station left due to Russian strikes, when Russian missiles are aimed precisely at making the lives of Ukrainians unbearable. All projects of our cooperation with partners in energy are of great importance. It is important that there are ways to strengthen energy cooperation between our countries. Our teams must work well to accelerate the agreement on a free trade zone between Ukraine and Serbia. These negotiations are progressing, which is positive, and it would be good to prepare everything by the end of this year for concluding the free trade agreement between Ukraine and Serbia.
We discussed relations with the European Union, and we will be glad if Serbia's path to the European Union accelerates. We all in Europe must cooperate with each other as productively as possible on the basis of mutual respect and mutually beneficial relations. It is important that every people in Europe receives clear signals and clear emotion from the European Union that this people is needed in Europe and that no one can be lost for Europe.
We also talked with the President about diplomacy, about all diplomatic perspectives that can work to end this war. It is important that everywhere in the world, it is known that we want, and it is true, and it is a fact, we want a dignified peace, that every opportunity is used for peace, for guaranteed security, all available opportunities that exist in Washington, in Beijing, in the capitals of Europe, our partners in the Middle East, in the Gulf, in all capitals of the world that have influence on the respective processes.
One more thing, I want to thank everyone in Serbia, all people who accepted Ukrainians after the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, who met our people with respect and attention. We will never forget your kindness to our Ukrainians. I thank all of you and thank you, Alexander, for the invitation, for the support, and we wish your country only peace. We understand that this is the most precious thing people have. Thank you. Glory to Ukraine.
President. Now we will move on to questions. The first question goes to Ms. Oleniakova. Olena, speak.
And Mr. President, you mentioned the shelling that took place last night. A ballistic attack again on Kyiv and the region, as a result of which at least three people died. Among them, a boy born in 2022. That is, the child never lived in peace, in peaceful Ukraine. The whole world knows about our need for Patriot missiles. What do your partners, not only European but also other leaders of countries in the world, tell you in response to the request when you ask for these Patriot missiles? Is there anyone ready to give, perhaps not now, perhaps in a month? And we understand that there are no alternatives to these interceptors for shooting down Russian ballistic missiles, but there is another option: the destruction of Russian launchers. What does Ukraine need to make the destruction of launchers more effective and more accessible, if I may say so?
Thank you very much for the opportunity. As a responsible person, I'm not able to make serious assessments and assumptions on whether the war is going to be over soon or not that soon. No doubt that I believe in an entire international community including Serbia, all our people would like to see an end of this war as soon as possible. But if you ask me and as a political veteran, I can tell you that I'm not sure about it and I'm very very much afraid that we'll have another difficult winter, mainly your people but all the others all over the world as well to a certain extent. But on the other hand I hope, but I just hope without any real facts behind these hopes that this will end sooner, but I don't see the way how this might happen to tell you the truth and sorry that I had to be very sincere and very honest. But I just wanted to add one more thing which has just been mentioned. This free trade agreement is of utmost importance for our country with Ukraine and we're going to work hard and I believe that swiftly and efficiently deliver it to our people. On the other hand, I forgot to say that we promised to the President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, in Ukraine even when we were in Odessa that we were going to take care of one small town in Ukraine that was harshly hit by the war and that is something we are going to do.
Thank you for the question. Of course, we will assess it. Alexander, I want to react immediately. It is important. Yesterday we talked about the reconstruction of our state, and not after the war, during the war, how we need to restore a lot regarding water supply, energy after strikes. And the proposal to help with one town. Our group worked overnight, and we have already returned with a plan. I am very glad about the positive reaction from the President. Thank you to Serbia. Now, regarding ballistic missiles, we have been living with this since the first days of the war. You remember it perfectly. The first missile strikes, various missiles, etc. In Ukraine, nothing was happening with ballistic missiles. This is very difficult work. In which directions can this problem be solved?
Well, first of all, who has anti-ballistic missiles and systems, it is the United States of America primarily, can they help? We work every month. Will they allocate missiles to us? Yes. We have agreements. Are these missiles enough? No. These missiles have decreased in 2026. I have already said this, I am not talking about a clear figure, I cannot prepare and I cannot towards our partners. So these missiles have decreased in 2026. Yes, in 2025 there were more. I will tell you frankly, monthly deliveries. Monthly deliveries. Now we will join how to solve. The second story is Europe. Who has them, the Germans have them, the Poles have them.
These are those who can seriously help. With all due respect and gratitude to the German side, they really helped, and Poland helped. But we are asking, who can give? I will tell you frankly, other countries, we are constantly working with the Nordics, with the Netherlands, they are helping little by little. I will not say how, how many missiles. I communicate every day with this or that European country and Middle Eastern countries so that Ukraine receives additional missiles beyond the American package.
We are simply at the level where all our institutions must work on this, not only the president. Everyone must work, otherwise missiles will be insufficient. Besides European colleagues, I told you about the Middle East. And I will tell you frankly, South Korea and Japan could also help. Did they help us during this war with air defense? No. According to their internal legislation, according to their constitution, we did not receive the appropriate help. Often asked about Israel. We would like to receive air defense from them as well. We would be ready to buy. We do not have that opportunity yet, although we are in dialogue.
The second option is our own ballistic missiles. You know that we are working on these ballistic missiles. And we are working with the same with Germany, with the Netherlands, with Norwegian partners, with Denmark. We are working with all these countries, with Italy, the company Leonardo, to make our own European system. We are working on this. Here, the leadership is in the Ukrainian company FirePoint. I say the name because all this is quite public information already. And from the private sector, we have capable ones doing this. They are dealing with ballistic and anti-ballistic missiles. One private company, you know it, I just said it. It needs to be supported. They are the ones dealing with it and no one else. And one state company, I cannot name the state company. I said FirePoint because they are the ones coming out with such public information. Well, it's already too late to say anything about what will fly at them because of this. But nevertheless, there is what there is. These companies are working, and everything must be done so that they are not destroyed by the enemy. This is our own ballistic missiles. And we also have programs with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, with American companies, when we will work on another project. It is too early to say anything now. If successful, we will close our sky.
Besides combat goals regarding work inside Russia, regarding their respective systems, places that launch missiles at us, well, this is a separate task of separate services. Of course, we are working on this.
