NATO Chief Responds to Zelenskyy’s Requests
Rokna Political Desk: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday, where he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed security guarantees aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s defenses and strengthening its position in future negotiations with Russia. Rutte stressed that NATO’s support remains “unwavering” and highlighted ongoing efforts with the United States and European partners to establish robust guarantees that would deter any renewed Russian aggression.
Zelenskyy discusses security guarantees with Nato's Rutte during his unannounced visit to Ukraine
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte turns out to be in Kyiv today, making a previously unannounced visit to Ukraine.
We are just getting some lines from his joint appearance at a press briefing with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said the pair discussed possible security guarantees for Ukraine, insisting they should be structured in a similar way to Nato’s core principle in Article 5 that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
The Ukrainian president also repeatedly alleged that Russia was trying to make it impossible to end the way and to avoid a leaders’ meeting between himself and Putin.
Nato working on 'robust security guarantees' for Ukraine to strengthen Ukraine in talks with Russia
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, Nato’s Rutte said the alliance’s support for Ukraine remained “unwavering” and “continues to grow,” with more plans to provide Nato funding to ensure “a crucial flow of lethal US weapons to Ukraine.”
He lauded the outcome of Monday’s talks at the White House, saying that Trump made it clear “the United States will indeed be involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine.”
“Robust security guarantees will be essential, and this is what we are now working to define, so that when the time comes you for you to enter that bilateral meeting, you have the unmistakable force of Ukraine’s friends behind you, ensuring that Russia will uphold any deal, and will never ever again, attempt to take one square kilometre of Ukraine.”
He then got challenged by a Ukrainian reporter on how the new guarantees would be different from the ones made to Ukraine in the past, including in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, that ended up being ignored by Russia.
Rutte insisted that Europe’s and the US’s active role will make them different this time.
“The Budapest Memorandum and Minsk did not provide those security guarantees. So we clearly know what it should not be, and we are now working together – Ukraine, the Europeans, the United States – to make sure that the security guarantees are of such a level that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, sitting in Moscow, will never, ever try to attack Ukraine again.”
Send Comments