President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky gave details about the vision of future security guarantees for Ukraine. Zelensky said this at a briefing with journalists, the journalist reports UNIAN.
The Head of State noted that in the context of developing security guarantees, there are several important"blocks" for Ukraine, and in particular, the first block concerns the Ukrainian army.
"In my opinion, this block concerns the financing of the personnel that exist today. The ability to finance the army in exactly the number that today defends our borders. No one says more, because no one will give more. But we cannot say less, because we are not going to conduct relevant experiments," Zelenskyy noted.
In addition, weapons for the army are an important issue. There are three areas that need to be supported and financed. Ukraine needs help from international partners.
Firstly, assistance for domestic Ukrainian production: for drones, technologies, etc. Secondly, we are talking about European production: air defense, artillery.
Third, financing the purchase of American weapons through NATO as part of the PURL initiative.
The president then spoke about the second block of security guarantees for Ukraine. He recalled that Ukraine has always sought NATO membership, but currently our country is not accepted there. In this regard, other NATO-like formats for Ukraine's defense are being discussed.
"My approach to this is very clear. If not NATO, and we are told: 'as strong as NATO, but not NATO'... We must understand what our partners are ready for. Because this is what the alliance is," Zelenskyy noted.
The President added that next week in Europe he intends to discuss this with partners, but without the military, because there were consultations at the level of the Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and at the level of national security advisors.
"In my opinion, leaders need to get involved urgently to reach an agreement, and only then move on to the military, national security advisers, etc. This is what I see. Because issues such as 'boots on the ground' and so on can only be discussed at the level of leaders. Who is ready and what is ready for. This is my philosophy of the second bloc," Zelensky said.
He included the issue of sanctions in the third block. It concerns what international partners will be prepared to do if Russia attacks again.
"Let's say Russia attacks us again from the sea. Who, what and how will protect from the sky, which of the partners is ready for what? And on the ground - from Belarus, from Russia... Answering these simple questions, we need to see who is ready to provide what to Ukraine. And for how long. That's why sanctions are in the third block. And I believe that Russian assets, because they are the restoration of our state, they are energy, communications, etc. - are also part of our security guarantees," the president noted.
He separately noted that guarantees include a clear understanding of Ukraine's acquisition of membership in the European Union, and these are, first of all, economic security guarantees.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
UNIAN previously reported that, according to the Financial Times, the US will be part of the"coordination" security guarantees for Ukraine after the end of a full-scale war. This US offer depends on the willingness of European capitals to send tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine.
We also wrote that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that security guarantees from the West must also take into account Russia's interests. In her opinion, the current proposals are"unilateral and clearly aimed at deterring Russia." Zakharova also added that the West's proposals currently increase the risk of NATO being drawn into an armed conflict with Russia.
