MOSCOW, December 24 Deputy head of the office of Vladimir Zelensky Andrey Sibiga named six EU countries that have not joined the declaration of security guarantees for Kyiv, reports the Ukrainian publication Strana.ua.
On Friday, the head of Zelensky's office, Andriy Ermak, said that more than 30 countries had joined the declaration on security guarantees, and 15 expressed their readiness to begin consultations on bilateral agreements. Advisor to the head of Zelensky’s office, Mikhail Podolyak, said in early September that Kyiv expects 51 countries to become key guarantors of its security.
“The president’s office named six EU countries that have not joined the declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine. We are talking about Austria, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Malta,” the publication said in its Telegram channel.
“I think that all these states have the political will to become a party to the declaration,” the publication quotes the deputy head of Zelensky’s office as saying.
Earlier, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, the G7 countries published a declaration in support of Ukraine. However, the security commitments mentioned in it do not provide for specific implementation deadlines, just like previous promises regarding Ukrainian membership in the alliance. Kiev hopes that “security guarantees” will be in place before the NATO summit in Washington in 2024. As the Financial Times previously reported, security guarantees for Ukraine could be formalized as bilateral agreements with France, Germany, the United States and a number of other countries on long-term financing, military supplies, and training of soldiers.
Russia previously sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. He pointed out that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine up with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect.