Ukraine-EU security agreements are not 'guarantees': Zakharova
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The Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson believes that the West is in no hurry to take on “guarantees” and get involved with heavy obligations.
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Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova gestures during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (AP)
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated, in an interview for RIA Novosti, that any “security cooperation agreements” struck between Ukraine and Western nations do not change anything regarding the current situation.
The deals with nations including the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, and Denmark, have already been listed as “security guarantees” in Ukraine, but Zakharova revealed that nothing about “guarantees” is included in all the documents, and "they don’t really change anything,” she said.
Zakharova explained that the agreements only map out what's going on in practice, like large-scale military-technical and financial aid packages to Ukraine, which is something that has been happening for almost two years now.
She clarified as an example that Germany intends to designate seven billion euros of military aid by the end of 2024 and six billion euros in the following years, while France plans to give three billion euros this year.
She added that the UK will spend about 2.5 billion pounds sterling on the needs of Ukrainian forces, while Canada will give over two billion dollars.
“Nobody promised Kiev anything more than this even before the signing of these agreements,” she noted, adding that “the representatives of Western countries themselves, who sign such documents with Ukraine, speak of them as empty and unnecessary.”
Zakharova stated that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani emphasized how the agreements between Rome and Kiev are “political and symbolic” and “will not have legal force.”
Historic, but fictional
The West, according to Zakharova, has long discredited the meaning of “guarantees” as she recalls that in February 2014, “Berlin, Paris, and Warsaw did nothing to implement the agreement between the legitimate President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition, although they “guaranteed” its implementation.”
“In February 2015, Germany and France became “guarantors” of the Minsk “Package of Measures”, approved by a UN Security Council resolution, which were then “buried” together with Kiev, misleading the entire world community about the sincerity of their intentions."
Zakharova believes that the West is in no hurry to take on “guarantees” and get involved with heavy obligations, but its goal remains to turn Ukraine into a powerless territory and use it as a tool against Russia.
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This comes just two weeks after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security pact with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron after completing a similar deal with Germany, which was praised by Chancellor Olaf Scholz who described it as a "historic step" in support of Ukraine amid the war.
This deal's main goal is to aid Ukraine with the "re-establishment of its territorial integrity within its internationally-recognized borders" and anticipate "any renewed Russian aggression," the officials confirmed.
In addition, this also sets a path for Ukraine's future emergence into the European Union and NATO, the officials added, quoting the agreement, "France affirms that a future Ukrainian membership would constitute a useful contribution to peace and stability in Europe."
