Thank you very much.
I'm glad to see you again as well.
Thank you very much for raising this very specific issue of satellite imagery, which we were previously receiving from Canada. I know that both through our embassy and through other channels we are continuing this dialogue with regard to the possibility of restoring this and getting those clear images with high resolution that would help us to ensure a more efficient defence of our country.
Moreover, even though we have rebuilt our armed forces from scratch and, notwithstanding the fact that we have right now the second-largest standing army in Europe, our personnel still need equipment, training, and modern command, control, and communication procedures, as well as advisory support with regard to changing our army in accordance with NATO standards, and, finally, lethal weapons. For us, it's a matter of being more capable of defending ourselves and ensuring that we are decreasing the number of casualties we experience because of constant shellings and violations of the ceasefire by non-controlled territories.
I have some numbers here. When the U.S. provided us with medium-range counter-battery radar, the share of mortar fire casualties dropped from 43% to 17%, which means we are clearly saving lives by having high-technology lethal weapons that are also helping to halt the aggression and raise the price of the attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukraine.
Ukraine filed its proposal for consideration for UN peacekeeping missions on the territory of Ukraine back in 2015. Moreover, the Ukrainian Parliament has given our president the right to appeal to the UN. Unfortunately at that point the then Secretary-General did not give the go-ahead to that Ukrainian initiative.
A couple of months ago we saw that Putin had decided to put forward a so-called “suggestion” that UN peacekeepers be present in Ukraine. There are several red flags as to why we would not be able to accept that particular proposal as it was filed and suggested. For example, we believe the UN peacekeeping mission has to be stationed on the whole territory that is occupied. It has to be controlling the non-controlled border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and not be stationed there for the protection of the special monitoring mission of the OSCE. Rather, if we are talking about reintegration of the territories, we need this mission to be stationed on the non-controlled territory.
I do not know why it was put forward in the way it was by the Russian Federation, but we are ready to explore all the possibilities for dialogue, and that's what we are doing. However, clearly there are some things we cannot accept. We also cannot accept any Russian national participating in this peacekeeping mission. I think this is absolutely a prerequisite for peacekeepers to be stationed here.