President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed special gratitude to Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte for his visit to Kharkiv.

"We especially appreciate that you are in Kharkiv today in a city that has endured a lot, endured a lot of bullying, blows and survived," he told reporters in Kharkiv on Friday.

"This is an extremely symbolic visit, this is a visit that demonstrates the path that we have travelled together," he said, adding that "it was from Kharkiv in 2014 that the bodies of people killed in the MH-17 disaster were returned to the Netherlands." Then, he recalled, 298 people died in the disaster, of which 193 were Dutch citizens.

"In Kharkiv, it is 100% obvious that Russia is waging a criminal war. Its goal is only destruction. Our goal is to stop Russian terror, save as many people as possible, return lives, simply return life, return normalcy to life and not have to wake up from air raid sirens so that all children can safely go to school, a regular school," Zelenskyy said.

According to him, the signed cooperation agreement "formalizes in one document the entire range of our interaction for now and, importantly, for the next ten years."

"This year we must achieve results that will allow us to bring the end of the war closer on fair terms," the president said.

"Separately, I want to thank the Netherlands today for its principled and strong position regarding the need to create a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, for the full restoration of justice. Every war crime of the Russians and the original crime of aggression must receive legal, fair sentences. This is also important for those who suffered from Russian actions that lost relatives, as well as to prevent repeated aggression," Zelenskyy said.