Ukraine to start talks with US on security guarantees
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Ukraine, its military now bolstered by Western arms, now says it will not take part in any further talks until Russian troops leave.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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KYIV - 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, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said on Sunday.
Mr Andriy Yermak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, also said officials from a number of countries were preparing to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss Mr Zelensky’s peace plan for Ukraine,
He did not say when the next meeting would take place but said the plan would be discussed in three phases, leading up to a meeting of heads of state and government.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the meeting in Saudi Arabia last Saturday, saying it would be held in Jeddah this Saturday and Sunday.
The talks on security guarantees with the US are a follow-up on pledges issued by the Group of Seven (G-7) at the Nato summit in Lithuania earlier in July to draw up and honour security guarantees.
“We are starting talks with the United States (this) week,” Mr Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“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.”
He 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 G-7 agreed for each nation to negotiate agreements to provide security guarantees and help Ukraine bolster its military.
In his comments, Mr Yermak said more than 10 other countries had joined the G-7 declaration and Ukraine was negotiating terms of future guarantees with each of them.
He spoke of the forthcoming meeting in Saudi Arabia at a gathering of regional officials in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
He said an initial international meeting devoted to the peace plan took place in Copenhagen in June.
In addition to calling for a withdrawal of Russian troops, Mr Zelensky’s peace plan provides for the restoration of Ukraine’s pre-war borders and the return home of all prisoners and deported children.
Russia and Ukraine held a series of peace talks soon after Russia’s invasion in February 2022,
Ukraine, its military now bolstered by Western arms,
