The first document on security guarantees for Ukraine presented at the Office of the President

UKRAINSKA PRAVDA – TUESDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2022, 14: 27

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Secretary General of NATO, jointly presented recommendations on security guarantees for Ukraine within the framework of the Kyiv Security Compact on 13 September.

Source: website of the Office of the President of Ukraine

Quote from Rasmussen: "The adoption of these recommendations will send a powerful signal to Vladimir Putin. This would show that our loyalty to Ukraine will not waver, that his war is futile. It would also send a signal to the Ukrainian people that we will loyally support the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine for as long as it takes. Doing it right means laying a new cornerstone of European security. If this is not done, it will mean an aggravation of the crisis on European soil".

Details: The key recommendations of the report are as follows:

• Ukraine needs the resources to maintain a significant defensive force capable of withstanding the Russian Federation’s armed forces and paramilitaries.
• Multi-decade effort of sustained investment in Ukraine’s defence industrial base, scalable weapons transfers and intelligence support from allies, intensive training missions and joint exercises under the European Union and NATO flags.
• The security guarantees should be affirmative and clearly formulated; they lay out a range of commitments made by a group of guarantors, together with Ukraine. They need to be legally and politically binding
• The Compact will bring a core group of allied countries together with Ukraine. This could include the US, UK, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey, and Nordic, Baltic, and Central and Eastern European countries. 
• The package of guarantees includes preventive measures of a military, financial, infrastructural, technical, and information nature to prevent new aggression, as well as measures to be taken immediately in the event of a new encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
• The Kyiv Security Compact includes a full-fledged sanctions package against the aggressor state, and may also include additional components, such as agreements on providing Ukraine with modern air defence/anti-missile systems, regional agreements on security in the Black Sea, and others.
• The security guarantees are not a replacement for Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO. 

The full list of recommendations is presented on the website of the Office of the President.

Updated at 16:33: Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the package of recommendations: "I have taken a careful look at this document. I believe it’s well prepared. It’s the first, but quite important step. These recommendations should become the basis for the future security agreement".   

Zelenskyy stressed that "it is supposed to be a working, active mechanism". The President also asked Anders Fogh Rasmussen to join the dialogue with foreign leaders.

Background:

• Earlier, the consultative group revealed that it would present the first document with recommendations on 29-30 August.
• In May it was brought to public attention that Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO Secretary General, are in charge of the international consultative group which will work out the recommendations concerning the security guarantees for Ukraine.

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