The future of our continent is being written here! EU Commission President von der Leyen in Kyiv

Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates Thank you very much for hosting us here at this Summit in Kyiv. I often say that Ukraine is a true inspiration for Europe. And this morning I had another reason to say this. I had the occasion to go with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to a post office at the Maidan. And we met there with plenty of people that came to exchange their old light bulbs for LED modern light bulbs. It is part of our national and international effort to reduce energy consumption. And it is part of the donation of 50 million LED light bulbs that we have promised. We have already reached the figure of 35 million LED light bulbs that can be delivered. And it was amazing to see that from the moment the message was out, in the first three days – I was told –, 750,000 Ukrainian citizens came to the nearest post office, exchanged their old light bulbs for modern LED light bulbs to be part of those who save energy and work for energy security. I think this is symbolic because after this short visit on the Maidan and the post office, there was the air raid, and we had to go to the shelter. And that shows the war reality of every single day that you are experiencing here, over and over again. And I must say, if a living proof was needed that Russia is suffering a massive, strategic failure but Ukraine is withstanding and is building its path towards the European Union: The fact that we are here for the 24th EU-Ukraine Summit, amidst the war, but we are building, discussing and developing the future of Ukraine in the European Union – that is speaking more than a thousand words. And what we have done is very down to earth. This is of course also the war reality: You have to act today, on the ground. ... At this summit, we also discussed how to make Russia pay for the brutal destruction it is causing. We are exploring with our partners the options we have for that. The perpetrator must pay and must be held accountable. We are collecting together the evidence of the war crimes. We have now the prosecutors in place. We are discussing what kind of institutional set-up is necessary. But for us is important that we have the political will to make Russia pay for what it did to Ukraine. Russia's society and economy is already paying a hard price because of the sanctions that we imposed. The tenth package on its way. We have the aim to have it in place by 24 February. It has a volume of round about EUR 10 billion. It is a massive package again. The plan is to focus once more on technology that can and should not be used by Russia's war machine. In other words, we look deeper into components that were found, for example, in drones to make sure that there is zero availability for Russia of these technologies or the drones production, for example, in Iran that we are following closely. As a third element, we will focus intensively on cutting circumvention. This is a topic. So the tenth package will also have proposals to fight circumvention. Last but certainly not least, we focused, of course, on Ukraine's accession path. Your determination to forge ahead is impressive. You are taking important steps forward with all the reforms to meet the recommendations. And we should not forget that you are doing this while you are fighting against an aggressor. We will continue to support you every step of the way. We discussed the details. Besides reforms, it is important to have a good track record on implementation. I know you are working hard on that, too. And rest assured that your progress will be reflected in our important enlargement report for the Member States that is due in autumn. Listening to you, dear Volodymyr, Mr President, I am confident that you will keep up the good pace. Because you know what is good for your country. These reforms will anchor Ukraine in our family of free and liberal democracies. Slava Ukraini. Stay connected with us! Facebook:   / eudebates.tv   Twitter:   / eudebates   Instagram:   / eudebates.tv   #eudebates the unique initiative aiming to promote debate, dialogue, knowledge, participation and communication among citizens. #Ukraine #war #Zelensky #Russia #sanctions #inflation #Energy #war #Russia #GAS #pipeline #pipelines #VonderLeyen