U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said the United States is negotiating with the Ukrainian authorities to provide Kyiv with “security assurances” in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Evropeiska Pravda on Friday, April 22.
The author of the interview asked Nuland to clarify Zelensky’s words about security guarantees for Ukraine instead of Article 5 of the NATO charter. “Do you consider it possible for the United States to provide such guarantees at the bilateral level?” he asked.
“Negotiations are ongoing between governments that are not public, and I can only say that the United States is negotiating with Kyiv about the security assurances that Ukraine can receive,” the assistant secretary replied.
“That is, “assurance”, and not “guarantees”?”, – the journalist asked again.
“I said exactly as I said. That’s all I can say publicly,” Nuland said.
It is worth noting that the editors of the publication made a note to Nuland’s words, noting that “security assurances” is the term of the Budapest Memorandum, which does not provide for fixed guarantees of protection or collective defense.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously expressed fears that Western states are not ready to provide Ukraine with security guarantees equivalent to those of NATO allies. In an interview with the Ukrainian media on April 16, he admitted that he does not yet know what security guarantees Western countries are ready to offer Kyiv, and that there is a difference between the requests of the Ukrainian leadership and what international partners are ready to offer.
Victoria Nuland also touched upon the issue of the combat capability of the Ukrainian aircrafts, noting that there are already several NATO member states that are supplying Ukraine with the necessary spare parts.
“And now you have more aircraft on combat duty than a week ago, specifically because you received spare parts and other items from the Allies… So, to be clear, I will list: MLRS are already being delivered; allies are working on the aircrafts; and in addition, there is a considerable number of spare parts for military aircrafts, which are already changing the situation,” she said.
The day before, the United States announced the transfer of another $800 million military aid package to Ukraine.
It includes 72 additional 155 mm howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition; 72 howitzer tractors; 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones.
