President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko hopes that all the parties who signed the peace protocol in Minsk will manage to ensure the ceasefire regime.

"I believe that the efforts of diplomats will be successful," he said at the meeting with militaries of the First operative brigade of the National Guard, the 9^th and the 23^rd battalions of territorial defense, militaries of the State Border Service.

At the same time, the Head of State notes that servicemen must be ready to defend the country. "It shouldn't take off our guard. We know our enemy well. We know the price of his words. I've got no illusions about our opponent, but I've got hope," he said.

According to the President, the OSCE mission on the control over the ceasefire regime will be increased by 500 observers soon. He also stated that in general, the ceasefire regime was complied with, except incidents in Donetsk and Mariupol.

The Head of State noted that the Ukrainian army would change its defense in both tactical and strategic sense. He is confident that the enhancement of cooperation with NATO would facilitate that. "NATO managed to reach an agreement with several countries on direct supply of state-of-the-art weapons that will help us defend ourselves and win. Although we count solely on ourselves, we vitally need financial and technical military assistance. And we will get it," Petro Poroshenko stated.

 

Assessoria de Imprensa do Presidente da Ucrânia