On Friday, April 26, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, welcomed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže in Kyiv and expressed his gratitude for the fact that she was making her first visit to Ukraine. According to the Minister, this is a sign of special respect for our country and its defenders.

During the joint press conference, Dmytro Kuleba noted that Ukrainian and Latvian companies have great potential for increasing the production of attack UAVs.

"I am extremely grateful to Latvia for its leadership in the “Drone Coalition”. We are currently working together to increase this production - more drones are needed. I believe that Ukrainian and Latvian companies can really do a lot in this dimension," - he said.

The Minister also welcomed Latvia's decision to join the Czech initiative for the purchase of artillery shells and noted that the topic of shell production was one of the central issues during the bilateral negotiations.

Responding to the media's questions about new sanctions against Russia and closing the ways to circumvent them, Dmytro Kuleba emphasized that the high effectiveness of the sanctions regime is possible under two conditions.

"The first one is when the coalition regularly increases sanctions pressure. The second one is a necessity to regularly close loopholes and opportunities to circumvent sanctions. If this is not done regularly, the country under sanctions simply accepts the new reality and adapts to it," - the Minister noted.

The Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that sanctions cannot work to the full extend in conditions when allies limit the aggressor's ability to circumvent sanctions, but do not increase the sanctions pressure on it.

"You can't succeed just by tackling sanctions circumvention. So if at some point it turns out that the sanctions against Russia are not as effective as expected - and today Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world - only those who quietly oppose non-public procedures, discussions or introduction of new sanctions should be blamed," - the Minister said.