WASHINGTON, May 2. /TASS/. Ukraine will hardly get any firm security guarantees from the collective West, Mark Episkopos, the Eurasia Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told TASS in a comment on the minerals deal signed between Washington and Kiev.

"The minerals deal establishes a mechanism for compensation in return for future US aid [to Kiev], which, along with US companies and workers setting up shop on the ground in Ukraine, can serve as one of several postwar assurances in lieu of the hard security guarantees Ukrainian officials seek but are unlikely to get," the expert said.

"This, in tandem with other ‘soft’ assurances like a pathway to EU membership and durable ceasefire monitoring mechanisms, can add up to a framework for a settlement that's potentially viable for all parties." Episkopos noted.