Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden attend a bilateral meeting, as the NATO summit is held in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 12, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)
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By REUTERS
Ukraine is to start consultations with the United States this week on providing security guarantees for Kyiv pending the completion of the process of joining NATO, a senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday.
The talks, announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, are a follow-up on pledges issued by the G7 group of advanced countries after this month’s NATO summit in Lithuania to draw up and honor security guarantees.
“We are starting talks with the United States (this) week,” Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine’s capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future. These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support.”
Yermak said the guarantees “will be in effect until Ukraine secures NATO membership.”
The Western Alliance’s Vilnius summit offered support to Ukraine in countering Russia’s 17-month-old invasion and individual countries pledged new weapons, but no date for Ukrainian membership was set as long as the war continues.
Members of the G7 agreed for each nation to negotiate agreements to provide security guarantees and help Ukraine bolster its military.
In his comments, Yermak said more than 10 other countries had joined the G7 declaration and Ukraine was negotiating terms of future guarantees with each of them.
