PThe resident of Ukraine thanked Washington for its support, but noted that the United States, like other countries, has not yet provided guarantees to Kiev. Obtaining such commitments will be key to advancing negotiations with Moscow, he believes
Kiev, Ukraine
The United States has not yet provided Ukraine with security guarantees, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in an interview with CBS. Answering a journalist’s question about whether US President Joe Biden made any promises to the Ukrainian authorities during their last conversation, Zelensky said: “I would like to thank the United States administration and Biden for the support from both parties, for everything they do for us. But nevertheless, the United States has not provided us with security guarantees.”
According to the Ukrainian leader, Kiev has not yet received such guarantees from any of the countries.
Zelensky described the security guarantees as a “legally binding document” and not just a “piece of paper”. He believes that obtaining such commitments from allies will be key to advancing the negotiation process with Russia, since sanctions have not had the desired effect. Guarantees should cover not only sanctions policy, but also issues such as “weapons, the human factor and preventive response,” the President said.
On March 29, negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations took place in Istanbul. At the meeting, representatives of Kiev handed over to Moscow written proposals for a political settlement, which, among other things, provide for the neutral status of Ukraine. Russia, for its part, promised gradual de-escalation in the Kiev and Chernihiv directions.
As the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arahamia, noted, Kiev requires clear security guarantees at the conclusion of a peace treaty by analogy with the fifth article of the NATO Charter (it says that an attack on one of the alliance members is equivalent to an attack on the entire alliance), then Ukraine will fix a non-aligned and nuclear-free status. Kiev wants to see permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the United States, Great Britain, France and China) among the guarantors. Zelensky also named Germany, Turkey, Israel and Ireland among these countries.
On March 30, the White House said that Washington is not yet ready to provide specific details on this issue. The UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Barbara Woodward, on the contrary, said that London would act as a guarantor if Kiev asked, as it wants to help stop the military actions in Ukraine in any possible way. Germany also expressed its readiness to become a guarantor of security for Ukraine, and the Italian authorities made such a proposal. France is still considering the issue, and China has stated that it has not received a request from Kiev.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said after the talks that a lot of work remains to be done on the draft agreement between Russia and Ukraine, the military and diplomatic services of Kiev are still far behind the implementation of those agreements that have already been reached at the political level. He explained that the previously agreed positions— Ukraine’s refusal to deploy nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destructiondefeat, join military blocs, deploy foreign troops and offensive missile weapons, as well as Kiev’s obligation to conduct exercises with the participation of foreign troops only with the consent of the guarantors (including Russia)— were reached at a meeting in Istanbul. Then the parties also preliminarily agreed on a system of international security guarantees for neutral Ukraine, he added.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia, was also restrained in his assessments of the negotiations: in general, there were no breakthroughs, there is a long work ahead. A positive result of the negotiations in Istanbul is the transfer of Ukraine’s proposals in writing, which it was not possible to achieve before, Peskov noted.
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