Germany is ready to provide “certain” security guarantees to Ukraine, but only after peace. On this subject declared German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an interview with CNN.
“We are ready to organize certain security guarantees for (Ukraine) in times of peace. But we are not (in peacetime) yet,” he said.
At the same time, as Scholz pointed out, the “basis” of peace negotiations should be the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. According to the Chancellor, the West will also not take decisions for the Ukrainians regarding the settlement of the military conflict. He also promised to provide further support to Kiev from Berlin.
“It is very difficult to judge what will happen next in Ukraine, but there is something absolutely clear: we will continue to support Ukraine with financial, humanitarian aid, as well as weapons,” added German Chancellor.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
In September 2022, the Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, and the Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, proposed to create a document on a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the states that would become the guarantors of his safety.
These guarantors, according to the document, may include the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Poland and some other countries. The recommendations suggest that Ukraine’s key allies make clear commitments to support its military, while a broader group of countries provide non-military security guarantees based on sanctions mechanisms.
According to the idea, the package of guarantees will include measures that the allies must take without delay in the event of damage to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
At the same time, Yermak stressed that an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine should not replace its entry into NATO – it will serve as a means of providing security until such entry takes place.
Even before the start of the military conflict in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the international community to give Kiev security guarantees that would not be inferior to those of NATO countries. Yermak in July 2022 said that the new system of security guarantees should not repeat the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, after the signing of which Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. In September 2022, Zelenskyy noted that peace in Ukraine only came after the country received security guarantees. According to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who mediated talks between Moscow and Kiev after the outbreak of hostilities, Russia opposes Ukraine’s insistence on security guarantees because “this n is essentially no different from NATO”.
