Doorstep den 3. september 2025

Følgende er en transskription af doorstep den 27. august 2024 i forlængelse af arbejdsmøde mellem de nordisk-baltiske lande og Ukraine på Marienborg.

Statsminister Mette Frederiksen: Welcome everybody, and of course a very special welcome to my good friend, Volodymyr Zelensky. Dear Volodymyr, today you are among friends, in a country that understands what is at stake. You and your people are fighting every day, and you are now the ones to protect Europe against the Russian aggression. You have, by the way, clearly demonstrated your willingness also to negotiate with Russia. 

Putin, on the other hand, you have shown no such intent. He pretends to engage in negotiations, but continues a bloody war on Ukraine. And therefore, I have to be very clear, I don't think Putin can be trusted. He could stop the war today if he wanted to. Instead, he continues his brutal war, supported by Iran, Belarus, North Korea, enabled by China. Look at the pictures we are seeing in these days. And I think they are all testing our force. They are testing our European and transatlantic unity. But we will not give in.

And therefore, today we, the Nordic and Baltic countries, are standing side by side with you. Volodymyr is sending a very clear message. We are, of course, willing to defend our continent. We are ready to continue our steadfast support on Ukraine. It means more weapons and ammunitions, and more sanctions on Russia. We are ready to pave the way for Ukrainian EU membership. And we are determined to rearm Europe.

Of course, we want peace, but the peace needs to be lasting. It needs to be just. No one but the Ukrainians are to decide the future of Ukraine. And that is why we need credible security guarantees for Ukraine. We are committed to work on such guarantees together with the United States and other partners. We will discuss this further with partners in Paris tomorrow. It will be natural for Denmark, as a country, to contribute to a European lead military effort on Ukraine under the right conditions. 

And then, finally, I just wanted to say that all these discussions we have now, it's not just about Ukraine. It is about the future of Europe. And, as Europeans, we cannot be naive. Trusting that if only Russia gets a piece of Ukraine, then Europe will be safe again. Putin wants much more. And I'm asking everybody to make no mistake about that. I don't think Putin will stop this war until he is forced to do it. And, therefore, we have to be able to increase the pressure on Russia. We have to give Ukraine all the support that it needs. And we have to rearm and to make Europe as a continent stronger. And with these words, the floor is yours.

Ukraines Præsident Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Thank you so much, Madam. Dear Madam, dear journalists, first of all, I'm grateful to all for your support. Thank you. And thank you for the invitation and organizing such a very important meeting with all the leaders, Nordic, Baltic, President of Finland, President of Lithuania, Prime Minister of Sweden, Prime Minister of Latvia, Prime Minister of Estonia, Prime Minister of Iceland. Thanks for today's meeting.  Our format of Ukraine with the Nordic and Baltic states really works, and works in a way that also helps others set their priorities. 

Last night, Russia launched another massive strike, nearly 500 drones and more than 20 missiles, including ballistic, mostly ballistic, by the way, this night. And these are not now regular strikes. Several times a week, and a clear signal that Russia rejects any attempt to end the war and wants to keep fighting. We have to assume this is the main Russia's scenario now.

And so with today's meeting, we started a more concrete talk with all our partners on two things, defense now while Russia's war continues, and our defense in future, the security guarantees we need since Russia stays on its course. As for our defense right now, I'm very thankful to Mette, to the Prime Minister of Denmark, to Denmark and all the people for its clear leadership in funding our weapons production. This is already a historic contribution.

Today, we discussed how to continue this war in Ukraine by investing in our production and in the Nordic and Baltic countries by boosting your defense capabilities. The first example is already in Denmark. A new plan for missiles and drones is being built there. Thanks Mette for your support. 

And we agree that Latvia, Lithuania partners, and others will follow the same way and will build with Ukraine. We also discussed the PURL program. In August, we build the PURL program for American weapons. The goal is to add around 1 billion each month. I thank Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, and Iceland who are already in this PURL program, and other partners.

I also urged other partners from the Nordics and the Baltics to join this program as not only to our defense with crucial things like missiles for Patriots, but also to our relationship with the United States. We also talked about boosting Ukraine's air defense. This directly saves our lives.

Together with Nordics and Baltics, we need to provide additional air defense systems for Ukraine. This is critical, especially before winter. Russia keeps hitting our energy sector, hitting everything, and we need enough capabilities to protect ourselves.

Putin hopes winter will kill our people where his troops cannot reach, and we cannot let that happen. Air defense is absolutely critical. We also coordinated our positions on new sanctions against Russia, as Mette said, and on work with other partners, especially America. We must all speak to all the partners, EU partners, Americans, with one voice for our shared interests. 

And now about the security guarantees. We are already working both with the Coalition of the willing’s and bilateral partners on concrete security guarantees. We also have a solid basis in the form of bilateral agreements, including one with Denmark. We share the view that Ukraine's future security needs are article five-like. 

Today we discussed the basis and possible contributions of each country. Now we will fill it with specifics who does what on land, the air, at sea, and in cyber space. We keep our army in the core of this system, strong and large enough to resist Russia. This means weapons and financing, and we are working on it.

We also have signals from the United States that it will provide a backstop. And this is important. And we also discussed the important role that EU membership will play in the holistic system of the security guarantees in the light of the current presidency of Denmark in the EU. We are working together to open the clusters. It's not simple. You know why. But to open the clusters by EU 27.

But the main task now is to force Russia to stop the killings and the war. Pressure is the key. Right now Putin thinks he can get through the difficulties. But we know how to change this. The Russian economy is already in bad shape. Many Russian industries are in a decline. And also telling other labor shortages and Putin’s constant humiliations before China as it tries to sell them as much raw material as possible. All this speaks for itself.

Sanctions are really working. And we must keep pressuring Russia with sanctions and with tariffs until it understands that this war will end. And we will work on this with other European leaders, with the G7 and the G20. And, of course, with the US. Peace can only be a joint achievement. I'm sure it will come. Thank you, Mette, again for the invitation.

Journalist, Inter (Ukraine): My first question is to Prime Minister Frederiksen. The Danish model is expected to become part of the security guarantees for Ukraine. Is there a plan to expand this format? And what additional instrument does Denmark intend to use to ensure Ukrainian security?

And my second question is for President Zelenskyy. Can you share more information about concrete agreements with the countries of the Nordic-Baltic aid regarding security guarantees for Ukraine and their participation in the PURL initiative and maybe some more?

Statsminister Mette Frederiksen: Well, we have this so-called Danish model when it comes to supporting production internally in Ukraine. I think we can say that it has been working very well. And a lot of the capabilities that is now being used on the battlefield is produced in Ukraine.

We still have capacity, free capacity. And therefore, I would like to underline that all the partners around the globe should support with financing because you are ready to produce more than what we are able to get finance for right now. So it is working.

And now we are looking at this. I mean, this way of working has been very effective. Can we use this way of working in other areas as well? And let me be very clear, maybe the most important part of future security guarantees in Ukraine is ensuring that you have a strong army, a well-equipped and trained Ukrainian army.

And maybe we can use the Danish model, how we work on other areas as well, including part of the security guarantees. So, yeah, we are looking into that. We have said from the beginning of this war that you are not only fighting your own war.

You are fighting for the entire future of Europe. And therefore, we have to continue. And now we have found a way to make some very concrete results. So, we are exploring how to use that in other areas as well. 

Ukraines Præsident Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Thanks so much. So, first of all, as I said already, yes, in my speech that we really count on PURL program. And we have already a little bit more than 2 billion for the American weapon. And now we spoke with Nordic-Baltic partners. We count on continuation and partners support this idea. Then it's really the first program which works after the frozen process from the United States side. So this is good.

The second, Denmark, with Danish model, as Mette said, it works very well, especially with the drones, especially with the deficit, with the big gap for the drones. And Danish model, it doesn't mean that it's only Denmark has to deliver. Yes, so it's about the model. And now using this model, of course, we want to find additional money. I said that the big gap for our internal production is about 6 billion for the drones. And that's why, of course, we want to use partially, want to use the Danish model for this process.

About security guarantees, we really have more than about 30 security documents of security guarantees. But they are different. They help us during the war. Yes, we can count on the support of some countries basing on their bilateral contracts with us on the help after the war. But now when we speak about security guarantees from the countries, we need more than these documents. First of all, legally binding. We don't want to have risks. We don't want to have risks after this war for Ukraine and for the security of Europe. And it doesn't matter who will be the leader of one or another country. This system has to work. And this is important. That's why I agree again with the Prime Minister. We are basing on our strong army. And for this, we need weapons and finance. Thank you.

Journalist, TV2: Mr. Zelenskyy, you just said that sanctions are working. Now, another deadline from Donald Trump has expired. It was about progress in the meeting between you and Vladimir Putin. Nothing happened. No sanctions. It's not the first deadline.

There's been a lot of deadlines. We have seen no sanctions from United States. We have only seen since Trump came into office that the number of attacks on Ukraine have increased. So, do you have any trust in Donald Trump left? 

Ukraines Præsident Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Thank you so much. So, first of all, we need United States on our side in this crucial period, in this big war. There is political support from them, bilateral, bipartisan support.

And, of course, you know, during all these attacks, when we need their defense, which systems like Patriots has only United States or some European friends, but they don't have enough missiles. And all the biggest missile production of Patriot missiles is in the United States. We need this support. We are thankful to the United States and the president that he supported this PURL. It's not enough, but this is what we have. So, our people, just people, children, family, they attacked each day.

And, of course, we need Patriots and we need all these systems. And to be realistic, mostly United States has it. So, but it's not enough. We spoke about 10 additional systems plus. We began to speak with production and United States supported this. But it's very slow. You're right. Some decisions are very slow. About sanctions, what I had, I can only share with you what format of conversation I had with the United States president.

So, we spoke that by United States pressure, he can put Putin to the political negotiations. He has diplomatic format of dialogue, not the dialogue by weapon. And if Putin will not do it, he said, I asked him to put sanctions, tariffs, any pressure what you can on Russia.

Otherwise, he will never stop this war. And when we speak about pressure, we mean air defense, we mean weapon deals, we mean drone production, and, of course, sanctions. Such signals we gave President of the United States.

He said a couple of weeks and he will answer on this. A couple of weeks, in my understanding, it's two weeks or maximum three weeks. This Monday, two weeks ended. Tomorrow, we will try to connect with President Trump and we'll speak about it. Thank you. 

Journalist, DR: Yes, also a question for you, President Zelenskyy. The Danish Prime Minister has numerous times been very clear that she does not believe in Putin's intentions. Do you believe in him? And are you willing to give up some territory to be able to strike a peace deal? 

Ukraines Præsident Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Nobody trusts Putin. That's why just to give for somebody just territory. And for us, it's our law, constitution, it's our life, it's our history. And, you know, so it's houses and families, a lot of things which are very, very sensitive. People who live because of the Putin's attacks and because of the war, their houses, they want to come back.

Maybe now, in this day, it's not realistic, but they will come back. They will come back. When we say all of us that we don't trust Putin, it means that there is not logical, there is no really smart steps of swap the territories.

Because if you don't trust this person, and he already occupied us partially, but occupied it once. And then after big pause, he did, you understand, the full scale war. It means that even if you will go out, if somebody will support this crazy idea, who can give you guarantees that Putin will not continue? Nobody.

He lied so many times. So we can't trust it and we can't give him our territory. In any case, this is very defended, very strong part of our defending line.

And he lost there a lot of people, about 100,000 people, especially on this direction. I mean Putin lost. So it's understandable that during almost four years, he couldn't occupy even 30% of one region, Donbass region. He couldn't occupy it. It's understandable. So if he will go further, if he will fight, he will need years. I don't know how many years. But he understands that the question is not only in years, not only in time. The question is that he will need to lose millions of soldiers. That's why we will not give him such presence.

Statsminister Mette Frederiksen: Og med det løb vi tør for tid. Tak fordi I mødte frem.