Meeting of the Group on International Security Assurances/Valentina Polishchuk/Channel 24

On July 1, the first meeting of the Group on International Security Guarantees took place in Kyiv. This group is led by Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and ex-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak emphasized that the Group is working on security guarantees for Ukraine. However, they are not analogous to joining NATO, since membership in the Alliance is enshrined in our Constitution.

What the Group is working on

Andriy Yermak noted, that the first meeting of the Group took place on the 106th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, which actually became a turning point in the First World War.

Andriy Yermak at the meeting of the Group on International Security Guarantees/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

The Head of the Office of the President emphasized that the purpose of the Group's work is to create effective guarantees for the security of Ukraine. However, our state, unfortunately, has a negative experience of such agreements, so it must do everything to prevent this from happening again.

Ukraine has an extremely negative experience of security assurances under the Budapest Memorandum . We categorically refuse to repeat it. There will be no Budapest-2. We need effective guarantees to deter future Russian aggression – military, political, diplomatic, institutional, financial, and so on. – emphasized Yermak.

Briefing by Yermak and Rasmussen/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

Guarantees that Ukraine needs

The head of the Office of the President noted that our state needs such security guarantees that will allow us to exercise our right to self-defense. That is, Ukraine will continue to need weapons and funding for the defense sector.

Yermak and Rasmussen/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

It also requires the containment of new aggression. This paragraph provides for the creation of bilateral or multilateral agreements regulating the actions of partners in the event of new aggression.

< /p> Rasmussen and Yermak at a joint briefing/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

An equally important guarantee is the sanctions policy against the aggressor. Andrey Yermak stressed that sanctions against Russia should continue until it provides adequate security guarantees and compensates for the damage.

Andriy Yermak at a briefing/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

Head of the President's Office noted that Volodymyr Zelenskyy's idea is to ensure that security guarantees for Ukraine in the future become a new system of global security United 24. That is, an organization that provides specific assistance to a particular state within 24 hours.

Briefing by Yermak and Rasmussen/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk

Who is in the group

Members of the International Security Guarantees Group are:

• Kevin Rudd – former Prime Minister of Australia;
• Michel Flournoy – former US Under Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs;
• Carl Bildt – former Prime Minister of Sweden;
• William Haig – Former British Foreign Secretary;
• Norbert Roettgen – Former Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany;
• Anna Fotiga – Former Foreign Secretary Poland and Member of the European Parliament;
• Marie Dumolin – French diplomat, Director of the Shirsha Europe program of the European Council on Foreign Relations;
• Jamiero Massolo – President of the Italian Institute of International Political Studies;
• Adam Eberhardt – Polish political scientist, director of the Center for Eastern Studies;
• Roksana Christescu – political expert;
• Andriy Kostin – people's deputy of Ukraine;

Project managers of the group from the Ukrainian side will be Alexander Bevz and Daria Zarovna, from the Rasmussen Global organization – Fabrice Pottier and Harry N weekly.