Ukraine does not abandon attempts to persuade its Western allies to provide it with legally fixed security guarantees.

At the same time, in the view of Kyiv, the guarantees should be in fact similar to the Fifth Article of the NATO Charter on the system of collective defense.

Among their guarantors, the Ukrainian authorities want to see major international players in the face of the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Turkey, Poland and others.

Negotiations are underway with them, which, according to the adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak, should be completed within a week.

However, as experts noted in an interview with RT, the public statements of some Western politicians that have been heard recently cast doubt on their desire to promise something serious to Kyiv.

“You need to understand that the interpretation of security guarantees by the West represented by the United States and by Ukraine is different.

Western countries consider them only in the format of new arms deliveries that contribute to the implementation of American military production plans, their internal geopolitical and geo-economic interests, ”Victoria Fedosova, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, explained to RT.

She also noted that Ukraine in its current political formation is a US project, with the help of which Washington intends to weaken Russia in every possible way and tie Europe more tightly to itself.

Therefore, ensuring peace in the territory adjacent to the Russian Federation and the EU clearly does not correspond to the goals of the United States.

“For this reason, the United States and its closest allies seek to maintain a permanent state of conflict in Ukraine, turning a blind eye to the victims among its population.

After all, if they really cared about the well-being of this country, then biolaboratories, potential chemical weapons and real weapons would not be located there, ”the analyst added.

Her point of view is shared by the head of the department of Ukraine of the Institute of the CIS countries, political scientist Ivan Skorikov.

In his opinion, the West believes that from a political point of view, military operations in Ukraine are beneficial to them.

“Ideally, they need some kind of victory for the Kyiv regime in order to keep the country as a Russophobic stronghold.

In addition, the Ukrainian crisis is a very convenient topic for the same United States to attract Europe to itself, whose ties with Russia Washington has been trying to break for a long time, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, the West does not want to get involved in the conflict, because they are not ready to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of the “project”, Fedosova emphasized.

“Because the guarantees that Ukraine seeks to receive endanger the well-being of the NATO countries themselves, make them provocateurs of a major military conflict with Russia, because the Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that any presence of foreign military or cargo is considered legitimate targets for the Russian armed forces .

Therefore, in the West they are aware that this puts them on the verge of a third world war, ”she explained.

  • Burnt Ukrainian equipment at the liberated metallurgical plant named after Ilyich in Mariupol

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  • © Sergey Averin

In this regard, Western politicians are trying to come up with streamlined formulations of their participation in guarantees or generally refuse to take on obligations under some plausible pretext, Fedosova added.

"She said what she said"

Most notable in this context is an interview given by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland to the Ukrainian edition of Evropeyska Pravda on April 22.

At first, she dodged a journalist's question about the possibility of the United States providing security guarantees to Ukraine.

“Now there are ongoing negotiations between governments that are not public, and I can only say that the United States is negotiating with Kyiv about the security assurances that Ukraine can receive,” the diplomat said.

Then she stopped the interviewer's attempt to clarify whether she meant guarantees by the word "assurances".

“I said exactly what I said.

And that's all I can say publicly," Nuland said.

At the same time, as Evropeyskaya Pravda recalled, “security assurances” is the term that was used in the drafting of the Budapest Memorandum, which, in turn, does not provide for legally fixed guarantees.

This moment in the interpretation of the concept was also emphasized by the former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, who participated in the signing of the Budapest Memorandum.

According to him, if we talk about the United States, then in this document, Washington did not promise unlimited support for Ukraine.

“The Budapest Memorandum contains 'assurances', not 'guarantees' of security.

The guarantees would imply a commitment to provide the US military force that NATO members have at their disposal.

American officials made it clear that this was not the proposal.

Thus, we are talking about assurances, ”the diplomat explained in his column for the Brookings Institution back in December 2019.

Reassuring Kyiv is not in a hurry in London either.

In particular, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a press conference in New Delhi rejected the option of the West providing Ukraine with guarantees similar to the Fifth Article of the NATO Charter.

In his opinion, Kyiv should rely only on arms supplies and other less involved assistance.

“Ukrainians want – and now I think they will get – a number of assurances from like-minded states regarding what we can do to provide them with weapons support, training and intelligence sharing,” Johnson said.

This kind of support should help the Ukrainians to exercise containment and strengthen their territory to such an extent that it is "impregnable for Russia", the politician believes.

The leadership of Germany adheres to the same position.

As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasized in an interview with Der Spiegel on April 22, Berlin is ready to act as a guarantor, but Ukraine must defend itself.

“It is necessary to conclude a peace agreement that will allow Ukraine to defend itself in the future.

We will equip her so that her safety is guaranteed, ”said the German chancellor.

  • Russian-Ukrainian talks at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul

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  • © Sergey Karpukhin

At the same time, Scholz stressed that the Ukrainian side should independently develop the terms of a peace agreement with Russia, since no one has the right to do this on its behalf.  

In turn, France previously explained that the guarantees that could be provided to Ukraine would be more reminiscent of the provision on mutual defense, which is currently in force among the members of the European Union, than the mechanism of the Fifth Article of the NATO Charter.

In Ankara, they even stated that they were not ready to become a guarantor for Ukraine, because they did not understand what exactly Kyiv needed.

“We cannot become a guarantor of security until we understand what this means,” TASS quotes Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from an interview with CNN Turk on April 20.

Even the most “loyal” Ukrainian allies represented by Poland are not ready to take on obligations to ensure the security of their neighbors.

Poland is ready to consider the possibility of becoming a guarantor, but only on the condition that some other major international players also take on this role.

“If these are serious guarantees, that is, with the participation of the United States, as well as other major European countries, then I don’t see any contraindications here,” TASS quotes Polish Deputy Prime Minister Yaroslav Kaczynski.

Another conversation

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the possible effectiveness of negotiations with Russia on the issue of concluding a peace treaty is linked precisely to obtaining guarantees from the West.

At the same time, Kyiv recognizes the complexity of their implementation.

“Because there are very complex issues in these guarantees.

What we want and what we are ready to give us are different things,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky admitted in an interview with Ukrainian media on April 16.

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  • © Efrem Lukatsky

Despite this, he rejected the possibility of reaching any final deal with Russia without these guarantees.

“It is very important for me to have an understanding of what they (security guarantees. -

RT

) will give us before meeting with Russia.

It has an impact, it has a very strong impact,” he stressed.

According to Zelensky, in the event that the promises and obligations of Western partners turn out to be an "illustration", Kyiv will be forced to talk with the Russian Federation in a completely different way and about something else.

“Then this is again (speech. -

RT

) about bilateral relations,” he explained.

The justice of the reasoning of the Ukrainian president was noted by Ivan Skorikov.

In his opinion, Zelensky is well aware that he himself does not decide anything in this situation.

“He is aware that the fate of his regime depends on the agreements between Washington and Moscow, since Ukraine is devoid of subjectivity.

However, today it is impossible to say with certainty that these two sides are ready to negotiate.

Before the start of the special operation, Russia extended its hand to the United States several times and put forward specific proposals.

But Washington ignored them and now poses an existential threat to the territory of the Russian Federation, ”the political scientist expressed his opinion.

It is worth returning to the issue of resuming the dialogue between Russia and the United States when “they calm down and begin to see clearly in the White House,” the political scientist believes.

In turn, Victoria Fedosova noted that the current position of Western partners on guarantees was an unpleasant surprise for the Kyiv authorities, as they expected more support there.

“But the unequivocal statements of countries such as the UK and Poland, which are the most ardent instigators of this crisis, indicate that they will not provide serious guarantees, as they do not intend to cross their red lines even for the sake of a great friendship with Ukraine.

And that says a lot.

In particular, that Ukraine is once again being led by the nose and used as a battering ram against Russia,” the expert summed up.