Ukrainian delegation gives details of desired security guarantees agreement

ROMAN PETRENKO - TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022, 14:40

Ukraine wants security guarantees from the signatory countries that will be tougher than NATO Article 5.

Source: Davyd Arakhamiya, head of the Ukrainian delegation, at a briefing after talks with Russia

According to Arakhamiya: "Security in Europe has suffered a huge blow, and it is not working.

We have come forward with an official proposal. I should say straight away that we have not signed anything, we are simply communicating our position as negotiators with Russia.

Regarding a new system of security guarantees for Ukraine, we insist that it should be an agreement that will be signed by all security guarantors and ratified (by the parliaments of the countries - ed.) in order to avoid repeating the mistake of the Budapest Memorandum, which turned out to be just a piece of paper.

We want this new system to be a working international mechanism with specific security guarantees for Ukraine, where the guarantor countries will act along the lines of NATO Article 5, but in an even tougher manner, because there will be a mechanism for motivation. We are saying that consultations should be held within three days, whether it is a question of aggression, hybrid warfare, or any form of disguised warfare.

After that the guarantor countries must give us military assistance with armed forces, weapons, no-fly zones - everything that we need so much now and we cannot get.

That is our proposal. We would see the UN Security Council countries (Britain, China, Russia, USA, France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Israel) as being among the guarantors.

We propose free accession to the safeguarding agreement: if other countries want to join, we would give them this legal right.

Of course, we have unsettled issues with the Separate Districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, so the guarantees will not work for these territories temporarily. Some countries have already given preliminary approval, but we are waiting for official announcements.

This is the system on which we want to build a new security future for Ukraine.

Also these guarantors should help Ukraine join the EU."

Background: Ukraine could sign an international treaty on security guarantees only after a nationwide referendum on the issue is held.