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Ukraine agrees to renounce membership in any military alliance, including NATO, if in return it receives written security guarantees from ten countries, the Ukrainian delegation announced in Istanbul after a round of negotiations with Russia.
“We want a functioning international mechanism, similar to NATO’s Article 5,” Ukrainian delegation head David Arahamiya told reporters.
“We would like the guarantor countries to be those of the UN Security Council (the United Kingdom, China, Russia, the United States and France), as well as Turkey, Germany, Canada, Poland, and Israel,” the parliamentarian detailed.
In the event of an attack or aggression against Ukraine, Kyiv could demand consultations within three days and, if the matter is not resolved diplomatically, it would be entitled to military assistance, including the declaration of a no-fly zone, Arahamiya described the agreement proposed by his delegation.
If these guarantees are given, “Ukraine will agree to be neutral, will not have nuclear weapons, and will not allow foreign military bases on its territory,” added another member of the Ukrainian delegation, Oleksander Chalyi.
On the other hand, negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak pointed out that this agreement would not cover “the territories temporarily occupied” by Russia of the self-declared People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, nor the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
In any case, the proposal “does not envisage Ukraine using force to liberate these territories,” the Ukrainian representative stressed.
The status of these territories is to be negotiated with Russia separately for a period of 15 years.
On the other hand, Chalyi stressed that the agreement will in no case exclude Ukraine from joining the European Union but, on the contrary, the guarantor countries will actively support an accession.
Should there be a final agreement, its content will have to be approved in a referendum by the Ukrainian people once all Russian troops have left the territory. An agreement signed under pressure would be invalid, the Ukrainian delegation noted.
