The topic of security guarantees will be more important for Ukraine in case of “possible negotiations” on conflict resolution than the territorial issue. This statement is contained in a material published on Wednesday in the newspaper The New York Times (NYT).
"The issue of the territories is extremely important, but this is still a secondary issue. The first issue is security guarantees,”, the publication quoted an unnamed high-ranking Ukrainian official. As noted by the NYT, this position of Kiev can be linked to the victory of the Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential elections.
„Negotiations must be based on guarantees” Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence of the Verkhovna Rada, told the newspaper. “There is nothing more important for Ukraine.“
According to another senior Ukrainian official, Kiev would like to ensure that the ceasefire line does not harm the country's economic recovery. He added that Ukraine is also interested in the issue of the “width of the demilitarized zone”.
During his election campaign, Trump said he intended to end the Ukrainian crisis. He declined to elaborate on his peace plan. Russian President Vladimir Putin named the conditions for resolving the conflict, which include the withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from the Donbass and the so-called Novorossiya, refusal of Kiev to join NATO, lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia and creation of non-aligned and non-nuclear status of Ukraine.