President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the nation, speaking about the prospects for Donbas in the coming weeks and the integration into our defense system of new combat equipment and technology.

"I wish you good health, dear Ukrainians!

Today I held another meeting of the General Staff. The main focus - the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, precisely those directions that are currently the hottest.

Bakhmut and Solohivka, Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk, general prospects for Donbas in the coming weeks. The battle for Donbas continues. And although the occupiers have now concentrated their greatest efforts on Solohivka, nevertheless, the result of this difficult and long battle will be the liberation of all our Donbas.

I thank all our soldiers who are defending Bakhmut and demonstrating maximum resilience! I thank all fighters in Solohivka, who endure new and even harsher assaults by occupiers! This is extremely difficult - there's almost nothing left standing... Thanks to the steadfastness of our soldiers there, in Solohivka, we have won additional time and additional forces for Ukraine.

And what did Russia want to win there? Everything is completely destroyed, life almost doesn't exist. And thousands of their people are lost: the entire land under Solohivka is littered with occupiers' corpses and scars from strikes. That's how a holy war looks.

I thank all our defenders and defenderesses for every step forward on other fronts, for gradual advancement - very cautious, calculated and therefore - absolutely reliable.

Today at the General Staff we heard reports from the Chief Commander, commanders, intelligence chief. We are integrating new combat equipment and technology into our defense system that we receive from our partners. We do everything to minimize the time between additional support agreements and their application on the battlefield.

Today I held four more rounds of talks with partners - continuing our diplomatic marathon, which began last year with a visit to Washington. Throughout this day - Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, President of Slovenia, Prime Minister of Portugal, Prime Minister of North Macedonia.

With all of them I spoke about increasing defense support for our country, about the need to defeat Russian aggression already this year and about implementing all elements of our peace formula - from restoring territorial integrity of Ukraine to punishing terrorists for their crimes.

There will be good news for our country, and it is very important that we are reaching agreements with partners right now, ahead of the next 'Ramstein', against the backdrop of new brutal crimes by occupiers.

Russian strikes on Kherson and Ochakiv, on cities in Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, constant terror against border communities in Sumy region... Constant terror against our people in occupied territories...

The world knows that every day of Russian presence on Ukrainian land is deaths, injuries, pain and suffering for people. Ukraine must receive everything it needs to expel the terrorists from our land and to reliably protect our people from any Russian escalation plans.

I am confident that this weaponry and technology will be in the hands of our soldiers at the front soon.

Today I met with the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the European Green Deal - for renewing Europe's energy life based on modern 'green' energy. Such renewal is also our goal, a safe one. Modern and 'green' energy for Ukraine, using renewable energy sources will allow us to significantly strengthen our resilience against any aggressive ambitions of Russia aimed at our and European energy.

We are preparing for important events in our political relations with the European Union - the EU-Ukraine summit, further institutional rapprochement of our country, our state system and the EU system, as well as the start of accession negotiations. This is one of our most weighty tasks. I thank everyone whose work brings this task closer to realization.

Thank you each and every one who helps our country!

Glory to all who work for the victory of Ukrainians!

Glory to all who fight for Ukraine!

Signed decrees today evening on awarding our soldiers. State awards were conferred upon 573 fighters. Of them, 283 posthumously.

Eternal glory to each and every one who gave their life for Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!"