President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the Defense Forces needs not only weapons and funding, it also needs support from partner states and at the political level, in particular in matters of Ukraine's accession to the EU.

"May the war can end this year or when it will end ... It really depends on a lot of things. In order for Ukrainian resilience not to get tired, for this, this resilience and morality must be supported. And this is very important. It is supported not only by weapons, not only financially. It is also supported politically - if we are fighting for political solutions, such as opening a dialogue on EU membership or fighting for candidacy [in the EU]. But honestly, this is a historic decision, a historic result," Zelenskyy said at a press conference with the President of Latvia in Riga on Thursday.

At the same time, he noted that "to be honest, we should not have given so much effort and energy, we should have focused exclusively on the battlefield, because our battlefield is the battlefield of the entire European Union. And I think we protect everyone. Anyway, we are grateful for both one help and the political one. Sometimes we don't pay attention to the details."

The President also spoke about a conversation with one of the EU leaders regarding the opening of negotiations with Ukraine on its accession.

"Some of the leaders of the European Union, our colleagues said: ‘Well, come on, everything is fine - well, negotiations will not be open now, but in a year or two.’ And my answer was very simple: that both the war and the morality of people - that's how it will end. Another year, two more, three more … You stand there [ostensibly], and then we will decide, then we will help, then we will support [negotiations on EU accession]. My answer is: we are either one European family, or you know how - only publicly one family. And therefore, the end of this war, the restoration of our territories, a just peace - all this depends on the unity of all of us," Zelenskyy said.

According to him, constant economic support from partners would also help Ukraine focus on the war.

"A percentage of GDP or a percentage of the defense budget can help us. There may be different countries, different GDP and different solutions. But some kind of constant, on which the constant support of Ukraine during the war is based, it would have helped a lot. This would give us the opportunity to focus on the war, on the result. And not to think where we can get money for shells or where to get money, sorry, for retirement. Because these are people, and people at the front, they protect those in the rear. And in the rear there are children, pensioners, all citizens of Ukraine. We have to protect them. And this protection has very specific things, a very specific price. Therefore, let's be pragmatic in some areas," he concluded.