Kyiv [Ukraine], March 1 (ANI): While acknowledging that Washington is “extremely important” for Kyiv in all aspects, Ukrainian MP Vadym Halaichuk emphasised the need for “security arrangements” and “security guarantees” before signing on to any ceasefire deal with Russia, which he said, wasn’t present in the deal presented by US President Donald Trump.
In an interview with ANI, the Ukrainian MP stressed that Kyiv can’t risk signing anything which doesn’t provide it with “sufficient guarantees” for the future.
He also lamented the Budapest Memorandum signed in 1994, under which Kyiv had to give up its nuclear arsenal, and termed it a “worthless paper”.
The Budapest Memorandum prohibited the US, the UK and Russia from using military force against Ukraine, which agreed to transfer the nuclear weapons to Russia and became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in return for security guarantee.
“The United States is extremely important to Ukraine in all respects, and we have been in negotiations for further cooperation and support for some time now. With the agreement that was the subject of this meeting (between President Zelenskyy and President Trump) being passed back and forth and, Ukraine made it very clear that we need more clarity on security arrangements, security guarantees and unfortunately, we didn’t see that in that particular agreement and Ukraine having a very sad experience of Budapest Memorandum which we signed 30 years ago giving up third in the world nuclear arsenal and received a worthless paper instead of guarantees,” Halaichuk said.
“Having had that experience, we are not in a position to risk signing anything which will not provide us with sufficient guarantees. That’s the essence of the arguments that are going on in terms of what was happening in the White House. Of course, it is unfortunate. We wish that things would have gone smoothly and that our partners in the US, where we have enjoyed bipartisan support for many, many years, understand our situation. And we will do everything to retain that support,” he added.
He further emphasised the need for his country to become more independent in terms of security and added that the European partners are ready to step up their efforts in arms production.
“For some time, we have been speaking with our EU partners and others on how we become more independent in terms of providing security for the European continent. This is the top issue, how European countries, European leaders, Armies, and the defence industry are going to act shortly for European security to become capable of the arrangements in case the US does not continue to provide at the scale required. We have seen different reports that were ordered by the European Commission. We have seen arrangements with the Baltic states, the Nordic States, Great Britain, Poland, and Ukraine. A new architecture of security outline,” Halaichuk said.
“We are looking forward to the gathering and hearing what we are prepared to do. Our partners made it clear that they are ready to step up their efforts in arms production. They are ready to form a peacekeeping ground force; they are prepared to be more active in the anti-air defence, therefore we are optimistic,” he added.
This comes following Zelenskyy’s verbal sparring with US President Donald Trump and Vice President Vance at the White House’s Oval Office on Friday (local time). This shouting match between the leaders was witnessed by White House officials, mediapersons and other Ukrainian officials.
During the heated spat, Trump accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with World War 3” and threatened that the United States would withdraw all support if Ukraine didn’t agree to a deal.
Zelenskyy also reportedly cut short his visit and left the Oval Office. The joint presser of the two leaders also didn’t took place as scheduled. (ANI)
