BRUSSELS, December 15. /TASS/. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said that, now that Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Alliance is "out of the question," the European Union would need to provide concrete security guarantees to the former Soviet republic.
"Now if this [Ukraine’s NATO membership] is not in question, or this is out of the question, then we need to see what are the security guarantees that are tangible. They can’t be papers, or promises, they have to be real troops, real capabilities," she explained to reporters in a doorstep interview ahead of an EU Foreign Ministers meeting.
Kallas reiterated that "in the last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries," a remark she has lately been using in any comment on Russia. Based on this, she claimed that "the security guarantees are needed for all other members" in the EU.
The EU foreign policy chief also called for enhancing efforts to provide military aid for Ukraine as she emphasized that the EU delivered on its promise to supply Kiev with 2 million artillery shells this year, without elaborating.
Earlier, Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide who chairs the Russian Military Historical Society, said, commenting on Kallas’ remark about the "19 countries" allegedly attacked by Russia, that he is ready to personally give a detailed history lesson to the EU’s chief diplomat.