BEIJING, August 1. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the US are unable to provide Ukraine with genuine security guarantees because the West is not interested in them, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times newspaper.
"Such a 'security guarantee' would largely be a US-led arrangement designed to continue to deplete Russia at Ukraine's expense, rather than a genuine guarantee of Kiev's security," the expert said. "This is precisely in line with the overall thinking of the US and NATO in handling the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he added, saying "that's the brutal reality of NATO and US policy toward Ukraine." Li reiterated that "even with the military assistance provided by the US and NATO, it is still difficult for Ukraine to ultimately win on the battlefield."
According to the expert, the guarantees that the US may provide to the Ukrainian side "may just involve security consultations, assistance and advice." The professor noted that NATO's direct participation in combat "is likely to result in a nuclear conflict, an option that would be disastrous for all European countries."
On July 30, Andrey Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, announced the beginning of talks between Kiev and Washington on security guarantees. As Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US Department of State, specified, the consultations will be held in accordance with the obligations that G7 countries approved during the July 11-12 NATO Summit in Vilnius. The US diplomat noted that efforts on this track do not replace military aid provided by the US to Ukraine.