Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak emphasizes that our state is concluding unprecedented bilateral security agreements, which are an intermediate stage towards the main security commitment – full membership in NATO. He stated this during the Unified News telethon.
Andriy Yermak said that the agreements signed on February 16 with Germany and France, and previously with the United Kingdom, cover a wide range of cooperation areas with partners and true friends of Ukraine, who have supported our state since the first days of Russia's full-scale aggression.
"Starting from the restoration of Ukraine's internationally recognized borders in 1991 to joint military production, localization. They also contain absolutely specific figures regarding assistance," he said.
Furthermore, these agreements address sanctions, accountability of the aggressor state, the training of Ukrainian military personnel, direct financial assistance for the resilience of the Ukrainian economy, combating Russian disinformation, and intelligence cooperation.
"The main thing is to assist us in strengthening our defense capabilities and readiness for any attempts of new aggressions," said the head of the President's Office.
Andriy Yermak noted that all agreements already concluded and those to be signed later with other states contain all the necessary positions laid down in the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, adopted at the NATO summit in Vilnius in the summer of 2023. According to him, Ukraine is also working to ensure that each agreement is extremely substantive and even goes beyond the basic conditions laid down in this declaration, having its own specifics with each country.
"The signing of these agreements is an intermediate stage towards our main security commitment – full membership in NATO. Therefore, all these agreements envisage, in particular, support for Ukraine's future EU membership and aspirations to become a NATO member," Andriy Yermak said.
Speaking about the meeting of the International Working Group on Ukraine's Security and Euro-Atlantic Integration, which he held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference together with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Head of the President's Office reminded that the goal of this group is to create an appropriate atmosphere and ensure the support of influential world politicians for the necessity of accelerating Ukraine's accession to NATO.
In particular, this working group is tasked with changing the minds of some politicians in NATO member countries who, for example, believe that Ukraine's accession or invitation to join the Alliance will cause additional escalation from Russia.
"In Ukraine, on the contrary, we believe that not inviting us in Washington will be a new escalation because Russia will use it as a signal that it has a right of veto," said Andriy Yermak.
The head of the President's Office also emphasized that during the Munich Security Conference, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had extremely substantive meetings with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, delegations from the Senate and House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, focusing primarily on the importance of adopting a critically important decision on defense support for our country.
"The positive feeling that all of this will happen remains with us after these meetings. And the conversation with President Biden was very substantive and optimistic. He assured our President that the United States stands with Ukraine. President Biden himself, his administration, and the State Department are doing everything to expedite the resolution of this issue," said Andriy Yermak.
