NATO allies and Ukraine are working together to make sure that security guarantees for Ukraine are at such a solid level that Russia will never try to attack again, NATO chief Mark Rutte said, adding that Europe and the United States will be involved in providing them, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
"Solid security guarantees will be essential and we are working on that right now to determine it“, Rutte said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.
For his part, Zelensky said that the Russians are doing everything possible to prevent the meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and Russia, Ukrinform reported Ukrinform.
"The issue of ending the war should be resolved at the level of leaders, but now we see that the Russians are doing everything possible to prevent the meeting. Unlike Russia, Ukraine is not afraid of any meetings with leaders. We are ready to work productively, to the maximum extent possible“, Zelensky stressed.
He also expressed hope that "partners will help ensure at least a minimally productive position on the part of Russia".
"We need to force them to engage in diplomacy. We need really strong sanctions if they [the Russian Federation] do not agree to a diplomatic solution to this war, if they do not want to end it. We are counting on strong [sanctions] from our partners,” the president said.
According to him, “everything must be done to prevent Russia from continuing to hide from the meeting,” Ukrinform reported.
Zelensky once again emphasized that he and Rutte had discussed guarantees for Ukraine’s security from other countries, which, according to the Ukrainian president, should be similar to Article 5 of the NATO charter, i.e. an attack on one member of the alliance is considered an attack on all, Reuters reported.