As he started, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko pointed out the parliament would vote today for constitutional changes that are capable of providing inevitability of Ukraine’s heading towards the EU-NATO accession. He then called on to support these vital amendments.   

(Pared-down text)

Ukraine’s European choice

10 million biometric passports are the answer to those who said that Ukrainians do not need the visa-free regime. "What does this figure mean? ... 10 million means that those who said that Ukrainians do not need the visa-free regime, Ukrainians do not need biometric passports turned out to be wrong," Petro Poroshenko said, and noted that 10 million means that every fourth Ukrainian has received a biometric passport.

On Russian un-friendship

President Petro Poroshenko stressed that the country continues to fight the aggression of the Russian Federation.

“What we have today cannot be called friendship” - President about sending the note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on termination of the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. “Pursuant to my instruction, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially delivered to Russia the note on termination of the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. Because what we have today can hardly be called friendship,” commented President Petro Poroshenko.

“The whole world calls it what it really is - illegal annexation of the Crimea, aggression against a sovereign and independent Ukraine and Ukrainian people by the country-aggressor Russian Federation,” noted the head of the state.

The President also informed that he would visit the United States on Monday to take part in the session of the UN General Assembly. The President observed that he had given the order for this message - the note of Ukraine on the termination of this Treaty - to be circulated as an official document of the UN General Assembly "to leave no doubt to anyone that Ukraine finally left the Soviet empire and the Russian Empire".

Return of Crimea

“The Russia's attack began with the attempt to annex the Crimea, and it must be finished with its return - including the reimbursement of damaged incurred and, this time, the provision of effective guarantees for non-recurrence of the aggression,” stated the President P.Poroshenko.

Defence and army

During the Address in the Verkhovna Rada "On the Internal and External Situation of Ukraine in 2018", President Petro Poroshenko touched upon the issues of state defense, in particular further development of the Ukrainian army. The President recalled the state of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian aggression in the spring of 2014.

The President noted that over four years the state managed to significantly upgrade the equipment, get rid of the dependence on the supply of components from the Russian Federation, reaching the level of 3% of GDP for defense. "This is the first time in the years of independent Ukraine and this is a huge achievement. This is significant for the state budget and economy, but rather modest compared with the military expenditures of the aggressor-country. Our defense needs are well beyond our capabilities. And we have to find non-standard solutions," he stressed.

"Today, we, our army, have to reach a completely different level: new technologies, modernization, armament and rearmament, as well as the transition to NATO standards taking into account our unique experience of rebuffing the aggression," emphasized the head of the state. "Our army is becoming the army of a new generation of Ukrainians. The army takes over modern forms of confrontation in all areas, both traditional and new, including information and cyberspace," the President emphasized and outlined priority areas in the military sphere, namely the development of high-precision and long-range weapons, high-tech intelligence, effective control systems , space support, air defense, special operations forces and naval forces.

Ukraine’s fight for being supported

"Russian aggression caught the West flatfooted. All the important signals were ignored: provocation with Tuzla; frankly aggressive speech by the Russian president at the Munich Security Forum in 2007, where he virtually warned everyone about everything; Russian attack on Georgia in 2008; even the first reaction to the occupation of Crimea was surprisingly sluggish and toothless. But even now, after thousands of victims in the Donbas, after the MH17 tragedy, after Syria, after Salisbury, many in the West want to seek an insight into Putin’s soul. I'm wondering - what do you want to see there, gentlemen? Everything is in front of you. Russia supports right and left populist movements, fomenting Euroscepticism, interfering in elections throughout the world, interfering in referendums, as was the case in the Netherlands. In this way, the Kremlin promotes its alternative agenda, its alternative values hoping that it will be increasingly difficult for the West to hold a united position against Moscow," the President said.

"The one who thinks that Russian aggression automatically provides us with support of the West is deeply mistaken. It does not. And it is necessary to fight for support every day. And in these four and a half years we managed not only to create and maintain a powerful transatlantic coalition in support of Ukraine, but also to significantly expand and strengthen it. The principle "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" became an axiom of international politics. Proposals to violate it and agree behind our backs emerge each month and are immediately extinguished by us," the President stated.

Tomos and local church

Tomos is actually another Act of Declaration of Ukraine's Independence.

President Petro Poroshenko emphasized the importance of strengthening unity in our country and stressed that the creation of the Autocephalous Orthodox Ukrainian Church would contribute to that. He also noted that the Exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who arrived in Kyiv, have already reported that the process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine has reached the finish line. "They said it publicly. I do not know when exactly the Tomos will be approved and when it will be brought to Kyiv. But I am sure that the wheel of this story has been ramped up so that nobody will be able to turn it back," Petro Poroshenko said during the Address.

The President recalled that hundred years ago the issue of autocephaly was put on the agenda by the state leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic. 27 years ago, Ukraine resumed its struggle for autocephaly, but "the last four years of quiet and painstaking and now public diplomacy have been crucial”. "For us, our own church is a guarantee of spiritual freedom. This is the key to social harmony," he added. The President stressed that the value of Tomos goes beyond Ukraine. "This is the fall of the Third Rome as the oldest conceptual request of Moscow for the world hegemony. Here, in our territories, the future of the Eastern Orthodoxy is also being solved. We and Russians understand it in absolutely different ways, and this is one of the reasons why we are not on the same road with Russians. Their church is a so-called “bond” of the authoritarian regime. And we, as the largest Orthodox country in Europe, will demonstrate how Eastern Christianity and democracy get along in one national organism,” Petro Poroshenko noted.

Ukraine’s economy

In his speech, the President of Ukraine separately focused on economic issues, noting that the country managed to avoid default, and since the end of 2016 it has restored economic growth.  "The day before yesterday the State Statistics Service of Ukraine clarified that GDP in the second quarter increased by 3.8%.  This is not the figure that suits us, but it is a solid indicator of the country's economic growth," said the President. "With you, we have created anticorruption infrastructure.  Some new authorities have been invested with considerable financial resources of Ukraine’s taxpayers, but so far, the rate of their usefulness is not satisfactory," said Petro Poroshenko.

On ‘pigeons of peace’ and populism

"The Kremlin is trying to persuade our allies of the alleged preparation by Ukraine of the power scenario for the liberation of the Donbas. Of course, we should have this option, because every army should be ready for any scenarios. Ukraine has the right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. And we have emphasized this separately in the recently approved Law on the Donbas reintegration. But our strategy for peace is to reach it politically and diplomatically, because it is optimal for Ukraine and is in line with our national interests,"   emphasized the head of the state.

"We convince the whole world that any concession in favor of the Kremlin without restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine is a defeat. Defeat of Law and Freedom. This is a defeat of the democratic Europe and the victory of the authoritarian Asiope. Meanwhile, the whole country is full of billboards calling for a "compromise" with the aggressor. "Pigeons of peace" are almost on every pillar ... But the shadow of these pigeons resembles a double-headed one. And you shouldn’t be deceived with a soothing cooing, because the beak of these turtledoves brings seeds of peace under Russian conditions," it was then stressed.

"Peace” is a beautiful and attractive wrapper, in which you can put everything you want. So we have to be vigilant. Do not forget that the enemy came here not for Crimea, not for the Donbas, it came for the whole Ukraine. The empire is impossible without Ukraine. So where will we draw the boundary of the so-called compromise - on the Donets, on the Dnieper, on the Zbruch?" the President asked.  "We see how the fifth column raises its head, tries to collect various rows in a heap activates efforts in the information space taking advantage of democracy. Our task is extremely difficult - to resist them without violating the norms of European democracy," the President said. “My role is by force of law and conviction not to give any chance to those who could question our own way, the way of our independence, the way of state creation, the way of Ukraine, the way of European and Euro-Atlantic integration," the President said.

"The smoke of war has not yet disappeared over this part of Europe. But it is already clearly visible through it - Ukraine can become and will become a new story of success, a new space of European growth," the President said and stressed that "we must be brave".

"For this we need to have a vision of the future. We have it. We know that there is no more convincing argument in favor of a European Ukraine than success. We have to convey a successful European Ukraine for the next generation of Ukrainians. And this will happen, if only we do not give the country into the hands of revenge-seekers, populists and demagogues," the President Poroshenko summed up.