Trump would like to finish the war by the 4th of July, the Independence Day of the US. Considering your previous statements that the most problematic issues need to be solved with Putin, should it mean that before that you may meet with Putin before the 4th of July?
Is it a question to me? Right. Thank you for the question. So as for the 4th of July, the United States or President Trump would like to finish the war, I can only support this initiative. And as it was mentioned, if it was mentioned by the president of the US, it's new for me. However, now the information is changing really quickly. Today we are meeting for the whole day. So I didn't know anything about the 4th of July. In any case, during the negotiations in Abu Dhabi and also Switzerland, yes, Ukraine and the US raised the issue that there is the wish and vision from the United States of America to finalize this war as quickly as possible. Ukraine has always supported the quickly as we always say today fast track about EU and fast track about the end of the war. We support that and it's not about fast track connected with giving away part of our territories.
Asking question from Estonia Deli. Please raise your hand so the assistants can see you. Yes, thank you.
Good evening. Herman Gomez from Deli. Question to the Estonian prime minister. President Zelenskyy has been clear that he wants Ukraine to join the EU by 2027. Is that at all possible, yes or no? And what could the EU do to make that happen?
Yeah, thank you for the question. Today is Estonian National Independence Day, so congratulations to everybody, even to journalists, but we get along well. Yes or no? Absolutely yes. Because in an opinion probably everybody shares that Ukraine's future is in EU, that is an absolute fact and sooner the better. The year mentioned is 2027, but I know that as the enlargement is merit-based, it will need that for example if we will have some kind of political decision that in the meantime Ukraine should meet all the conditions because right now under the fire, under the Russian bullets, Ukraine has done a lot of reforms. This is not just saying that we want to be in EU but Ukraine has changed to come to EU. So my admiration to President Zelenskyy and everybody in Ukraine. You are always welcome to EU and the sooner the better and EU will be stronger, not only Ukraine. This is a security guarantee also for us, not only to Ukraine. Thank you.
Thank you. For Mr. President Zelenskyy, you hear EU leaders say again and again that Ukraine is giving their lives for European safety, yet they can't even decide on a loan. How disappointed are you in the EU and the lack of direct action at the moment?
No. No, no, we have, thank you for your question. No, no, we have the decision about 90 billion. It was very difficult. But first of all, it was very difficult for allies who are on our side totally because the unity had to, they, the allies needed unity to support this decision. But I'm very thankful to partners. They found this possibility and to provide us 90 billion. And today by the way, Roberta Metsola she signed it in European Parliament also the document about 90 billion. We know who is blocking, the Hungarians blocked it. But we had today conversation and Ursula von der Leyen, she's the president of commission, she said to me, I will not now speak about it for everybody but she said to us that she in any way it was the decision of 27 and that's why the decision can't be changed and she said that she will find instruments to provide this decision. And Ukraine in spring will have this money, first tranche from this 90 billion.
Next question please. Finnish broadcasting company. Can you raise your hand?
Thank you.
Hello. It's actually MTV News from Finland. Question for President Zelenskyy. There has been some speculation or talk in the media that at some point Europe needs to reestablish direct lines of communication with the Russian leadership. What do you think about this and who would be the right person to do that in time? Thank you.
Alex, maybe you want to...
That was not an answer. So the question was who should reference...
But Finnish journalists maybe you...
No, I think among European leaders we have spoken at infinitum about how we in Europe should have skin in the game. Now one thing that is, two things that are very different from last year. The first one is that we are having peace negotiations in earnest which did not take place previously. We now have documentation and we have just been briefed in detail by the president. And the second difference is that Europe is now paying for the war. And that I think gives Europe skin in the game. But whoever or however we are represented, it needs to be something that's coordinated and of course President Zelenskyy decides on that.
Would appreciate very much if the questions are distributed evenly between leaders. Next question please. From Iceland, can you raise your hand please?
Thank you. This is for Prime Minister Frostad Christiansen. Iceland has up until now supported every package of sanctions that the EU has ratified, 19 in total. Now, how disappointed are you that the 20th has not been ratified and what needs to be done? And a quick question to President Zelenskyy, how can small countries like Iceland best ensure that their support has the most impact when it comes to Ukraine? Thank you so much.
I don't know if this disappointment is on behalf of the EU or Iceland. I mean, I think we have to put in perspective that regardless of how much more Europe could have done, it's doing an immense amount. And I think it's tremendous how large these sanction packages are, and they're becoming bigger and bigger at every point. So I have full belief that we will continue to go forward with this. We can also see that it's really impacting and lacerating the Russians. This is one of the biggest discussions we've had here that they need to be broken even further. So I don't want to frame it as a disappointment. This is just something that we need to carry on with and Iceland will support every package going forward in this regard.
How can such small country as Hungary block everything? It means that each voice matters for us. It's very important to save the unity between all of us in Europe. It's wider than EU. Yes. And I think our friendship is wider and that's why even during our coalition of the willing today we had 36 countries, 10 countries more, nine countries more than EU members. Yes. So and of course it's very important to have Iceland, to have Norway, to have such strong partners Nordic Baltic, to have Canada and Japan and all these countries are very important when they are not blocking something.
Thank you. Next question from Latvia please.
Hello, I'm Anna representative from Latvia and I have a question for the prime minister of Latvia. How do you see Europe's role in ongoing peace talks currently and should Europe play a bigger role in them?
Yes, thank you for question. I think we discussed today a lot how we can help Ukraine actually by engaging but we have to be very careful because as we understand as well we don't want to ruin these negotiations which are going on in between US and Ukraine and the last ones was even with Russia. So we have our own negotiation channels where we should do probably put more effort from European side and today as well if we are going back to the voting and vetoing so in Europe we can push more on enhanced cooperation that what we have discussed today with our president of European Commission and president Antonio Costa. So it means we are looking within European institutions how we can move forward because we don't want to put so much energy by just because what President Zelenskyy just mentioned because of some countries which are vetoing something but it means so we are now paying for support to Ukraine military but it doesn't mean we cannot do even something more so we can for example put forward some trilateral agreements of enhanced cooperation or we can do something more on coalition of the willing. So if there will be position for ours not just in European level but as coalition of the willing we can show our commitments even in one step forward. So maybe it's some agreement maybe it's a political decision. So this is how we can push forward peace negotiations.
