Ukraine keeps fighting and hope for victory remains, Zaluzhnyi says

A worthy peace will require systematic pressure on Russia’s ability to keep waging war, the envoy added.

In his speech, he said armies and Western governments urgently need to adapt to new forms and methods of warfare if they want to avoid catastrophe. That challenge, Zaluzhnyi said, presents major opportunities for investment, but also runs into a dead end created by bureaucracy and reluctance to change.

“After all, it is convenient to have verbal security guarantees, a quiet and calm life, stable earnings from old contracts, and that same conditional security,” Zaluzhnyi said. “A security where everyone relies on someone else.”

At the same time, he stressed that he was not speaking in order to lecture those present.

“I am speaking about Ukraine, which continues to fight because there is no other path. And about the hope for victory, which remains,” he said.

Zaluzhnyi thanked partner countries for the support packages they have provided to Ukraine.

But he added that victory and a worthy peace require sustained pressure on Russia’s capacity to continue the war. That, he said, can only be achieved through clear strategies grounded in financial and technological policy.

According to Zaluzhnyi, such an approach would make it possible to produce today what will be needed tomorrow.

“And what is needed today should already be taken from storage as something that was produced yesterday,” he said. “Defense production must be part of the strategy of war, not the other way around, where war is made to justify someone’s promises and profits.”

He said this is the only way to seize the initiative, impose one’s will on the enemy and set the terms.

“Finance and technology are precisely the foundation of future investments that can be put into Ukrainian experience and, as a consequence, into a European victory. Because surely no one wants to repeat the fate of Ukraine,” Zaluzhnyi said.

He also called on partners to increase investment in weapons production in Ukraine — not only to reduce Russia’s military potential, but also to strengthen their own defense capabilities.