Fra Zelenskyj på Telegram:
Yesterday I was with President Macron at the Elysee Palace. I had a good meeting with President Trump. We discussed important things on the battlefield in Ukraine and in the global situation – from our front to North Korea.
I said that we need a just and strong peace that the Russians will not destroy in a few years, as they have already done. This is clear not only for our country and the region. We see how Russia is now trying to conquer Georgia after several wars against this country. Russia still does not let go of Moldova. Now the Russians are fleeing Syria, but this does not mean that they will not try to sow death there again. The Russian military presence is even in Africa, and precisely for the purpose of destabilization.
Therefore, when we talk about an effective peace with Russia, we must talk first of all about effective guarantees of peace. Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else. Russia brought war to our land. And it is Russia that wants to destroy the possibility of peace the most.
Updated data on Russian losses exceed 750 thousand of their people. This is 198 thousand Russians killed and more than 550 thousand wounded.
Our people are defending their home at the cost of their lives, and every life of our soldiers and our civilians is valuable to us. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43 thousand soldiers who died on the battlefield. 370 thousand cases of providing assistance to the wounded, and this is taking into account that in our army approximately 50 percent of the wounded return to service, and all injuries are recorded, including minor and repeated ones. One of the key differences between the Russian army and the Ukrainian Defense Forces is the level of development of front-line medicine, which is much higher in our army. We in Ukraine are grateful for this to everyone who helps develop medicine in our army and saves our wounded, carries out rehabilitation.
Since September of this year, Russia has been losing people on the battlefield at a ratio of 5 and even 6 to 1 for us. This is how they want to seize more land before the world's pressure on them can increase to unbearable levels.
In addition, let's not forget about our people in Russian captivity - these are thousands of people, military and civilian, and some of them have been in captivity since 2014, when the occupation began. Since February 24, 2022, we have already managed to return 3,935 of our people from Russia: 3,767 soldiers and 168 civilians. We must return everyone, and this is still a significant amount of work. And we must establish the truth about all of our people who have disappeared.
Let's not forget about the children deported by Russia from Ukrainian soil: the Russians themselves say that there are hundreds of thousands of such stolen children, and Russia is scattering them across its territory. Returning them is the most difficult thing. At least several million people remain in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
This is what this war is. It cannot be ended simply with a piece of paper and a few signatures. And a ceasefire without guarantees can be reignited at any moment, as Putin has already done. To guarantee that there will be no more Ukrainian losses, we must guarantee the reliability of peace and not turn a blind eye to occupation.
We all know Putin very well – he is sick of wars. He began his career with a brutal war against Chechnya and is constantly inciting other wars. He can only be stopped by force, the force of world leaders who can become leaders of peace. We are counting on America and the whole world to stop Putin. The only thing he fears is America and the unity of the world.
It is about peace through force that we are talking to all our partners – about real peace and about the steps and guarantees that the people and the state that Russia attacked need for this.
War should not be endless, only peace should be permanent and reliable.