Ruslan Shostak's Opinion on the Peace Summit

20.06.2024

I didn't want to write about the Peace Summit. I thought everyone understood its importance and strategic significance. But reading the comments and observing the hate surrounding this event, I got a bit upset and couldn't hold back:

1. Firstly, does anyone remember in the entire history of Ukraine public support for our country by the majority of the world? Over millennia of state history with hundreds of wars, never has our country been as successful geopolitically as it is today. That's why the hosting of a Summit with the participation of leaders from 100 countries is a success and the greatest achievement in the history of Ukraine.

2. Secondly, those who believe that we are receiving millions of ammunition, shells, and hundreds of thousands of units of military equipment out of pity are naive. All of this is the foreign policy efforts of the head of our state and his team. No other country in the world has seen such assistance, and to receive it, one must be in the spotlight. Constantly promoting Ukraine's brand on the international arena. And today, we have succeeded in this. Visiting Kyiv in the midst of war is a global trend among political elites. Whose credit is this if not the president's?

3. Thirdly, our country has received unprecedented financial assistance in 2.5 years of war—over a hundred billion dollars in budget replenishment and social projects. Who attracted this money to the country? The President. How? Through economic diplomacy. Through trips, meetings, the right words at the right moments, to the right people. It makes me nauseous when people say that the Presidential Administration's trip to the Peace Summit cost Ukraine 2 drones. Wake up, people. This trip cost Ukraine billions in financial aid—only the blind can't see it and the foolish can't understand it.

4. Fourthly, Ukraine has been at war since 2014. What did the previous government do to evoke something more than pity from the global community? Debt restructuring, Javelin deliveries, and global sympathy—all that the previous government achieved with its foreign policy during the war years.

5. Fifthly, I would call the Summit not just the Ukrainian formula for peace, but the formula for Ukraine's success in the world. And the best outcome of this Summit is not the agreements signed by countries, but the photograph of world leaders together. It's a historic event that cemented Ukraine's global role and accumulated political support for our country.

I may not agree with everything in the president's policies, but it's a fact that Ukraine's geopolitical relations are currently our strong suit.