PRESS RELEASE : President met with Anders Fogh Rasmussen who is co-chairman of the Group on International Security Guarantees for Ukraine

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 1 July 2022.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with former Secretary General of NATO, founder of Rasmussen Global Anders Fogh Rasmussen who arrived in Kyiv to participate in the first meeting of the Working Expert Group on International Security Guarantees for Ukraine.

This group is chaired by Anders Fogh Rasmussen together with Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy positively noted the willingness of Anders Fogh Rasmussen to participate in the development of the concept of security guarantees for our state, which it needs due to Russian aggression.

“It is important that you agreed to chair this important platform together with the head of my Office, the purpose of which is to fundamentally develop the mechanisms of specific security guarantees for Ukraine,” the President noted and emphasized the importance of uniting powerful experts with practical experience in this group.

“Unfortunately, today we directly feel what war is like. And Ukraine must build an effective security system for itself,” the Head of State stated.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately touched upon the issue of NATO’s role in the modern European security system. He noted that until now that system had not encountered such a war and therefore had not had clear response algorithms. At the same time, the President expressed his conviction that concrete and effective security guarantees could be developed using the example of the war in Ukraine.

The Head of State separately informed the interlocutor about the situation on the front, noting that the Russian aggressor is inflicting increasingly brutal attacks on civilian objects in Ukraine. According to him, this is real deliberate state terrorism, which has all the signs of genocide.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed his condolences to the families of Ukrainians killed as a result of missile strikes at residential buildings in Mykolaiv and Odesa region. He declared his strong support for the people of Ukraine in their struggle for freedom and the right to live a free life based on democratic principles.

Separately, the former Secretary General of NATO emphasized that he would make every effort to ensure the effective work of the Group on International Security Guarantees for Ukraine.