KIEV, September 13. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with NATO ex-Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who, together with Ukrainian Presidential Office head Andrey Yermak, presented the recommendations by the group on international security guarantees for Ukraine Tuesday.
"I must say that I have examined this document in detail. It was developed on a very high level. […] All recommendations must become a foundation of the security agreement," Zelensky said, according to video footage published on his Telegram Tuesday.
According to the presidential press office, Zelensky called the presented project "an important first step," and expressed his wish that this work will be complete.
According to the presidential office, Rasmussen said that the so-called Kiev Security Compact must differ from the previous agreements. He underscored that the treaty must not focus on obligations not to do certain thing, but, on the contrary, to provide Ukraine with everything that it might need. He also reportedly expressed his readiness to present the recommendations in the lead capitals of the world.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Presidential Office published draft recommendation for the so-called ‘Kiev Security Compact.’ According to Yermak, the document was prepared with participation of Western specialists, including former and current politicians and scientists.
This document does not imply Kiev’s neutral status or Russia’s participation as the guarantor of security. A binding agreement was proposed to be signed with guarantor states, which include the US, Australia, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, Poland, Turkey, France, as well as countries of Northern, Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics. The document underscores that this signing such agreement will not oblige Kiev to abandon its NATO aspirations or to reduce its armed forces.
Kiev proposes to develop a number of diplomatic, military, infrastructure, technical and informational measures, some of which guarantor states will have to take immediately in case of an attack against Ukraine. Kiev also hopes for investments to its military-industrial complex, arms shipments and intelligence sharing.
The Yermak-Rasmussen group
Yermak announced the establishment of the international consultative group for development of proposals on guarantees of security for Ukraine back in May.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored that an attempt to "cobble some guarantees together" in a narrow circle and to present them to Russia will be a dead end. He explained that the initial concept of the treaty was supposed to contain Ukraine’s obligations of non-accession to military blocs, rejection of nuclear weapons, guarantees of Ukraine’s neutral status, as well as guarantees for Kiev from a number of states, which will take into consideration interests of Ukraine, Russia and other regional states.