PRESS RELEASE : Ukraine insists on a system of security guarantees – Mykhailo Podolyak

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 26 March 2022.

One of the key elements of the negotiations on ending the aggressive war launched by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine is the creation of a system of clear and reliable security guarantees for our state. This was stated by Advisor to the Head of the President’s Office Mykhailo Podolyak in an interview for the German media Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“Ukraine insists on a system of security guarantees, which will include countries that are ready to provide these guarantees, including in the military sense. Many other things depend on it,” he stressed.

According to Mykhailo Podolyak, such a system of guarantees is impossible without the participation of the United States of America in the first place.

The Advisor to the Head of the President’s Office noted that there is some progress in the negotiations with the Russian side in the working subgroups, but in general the progress is not yet what the Ukrainian side would like it to be.

He also stressed that Ukraine would not exchange situational success for global security instruments.

“The Russian side likes to organize a “leak” of some information, some versions of the talks in the media, hoping that in our country, where there is an open discussion, there will be speculation, emotions and conflicts,” said Mykhailo Podolyak.

According to him, the issue of territorial integrity is extremely important for our state. Therefore, such a difficult issue as the future of the temporarily occupied Crimea and ORDLO should be decided only by the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia.

The Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President believes that the peace talks will begin to yield fruit when Russia realizes that it will suffer more losses from the continuation of this war than Ukraine.

“For this to happen, we need effective operation of our army. And this requires that our partners adequately help us. If you do not want to make a no-fly zone, give us air defense systems so that we can close the skies ourselves, so that our peaceful cities are not bombed. Second, give us weapons to unblock cities like Mariupol. Third, sanctions such as the oil embargo, maximum restrictions on financial transactions, etc. are needed,” Mykhailo Podolyak explained.