European Council President Charles Michel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held “substantive” talks on Wednesday, according to Zelensky.

Zelensky said he and Michel discussed how the EU can help Ukraine, particularly in the areas of defence, finances, and sanctions, in his nightly social media address Wednesday night. According to Zelensky, “another excellent topic of discussion was our progress toward integration.”

“We have already demonstrated that the Ukrainian state and civic institutions are capable of withstanding a war ordeal,” Zelensky continued. “We have already done so much for the defence of freedom on the European continent that it has not been the responsibility of the other nations.”Aside from that, Michel and Zelensky discussed specific steps to restore Ukraine following the war, as well as how the EU and Ukraine can collaborate in order to reduce Russian threats to food, energy, and safety in Europe and the rest of the world.

According to Zelensky, “resuming the export of Ukrainian agrarian products and putting an end to Russia’s blackmailing of the continent with energy resources are the top priorities for everyone on the continent.” As a result of Michel and his team’s visit to Borodianka in the Kyiv region, Zelensky stated that they “came to the very correct conclusion: there can be no peace without justice.”

According to the Ukrainian president, he and Michel also discussed the possibility of tightening sanctions. “At the moment, the European Union is working on the sixth package of sanctions,” Zelensky explained, adding that he and Michel had discussed the issue earlier today. We are ensuring that the Russian war machine, as well as the Russian state in general, suffers as much as possible.”

He said that in all of the negotiations, he emphasized the sanctions are not needed as an end in itself,