By KYIV. Dec 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – There will be no word “assurances” in the security guarantees that Ukraine hopes to receive from Western countries, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Ihor Zhovkva said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We call it ‘guarantees.’ And we will make sure that our partners also accept this word. We remember the Budapest Memorandum, which also dealt with guarantees first, and then … There won’t be definitely word ‘assurances’ in any of our documents,” he said.
According to him, there is a good dynamic in the negotiations with the UK. “There is really a good dynamic there. Just a few days ago, I held another consultation round with the British side, and we talked in a very substantive way. Again, I can’t tell you the meaning, but the UK is on a good track, as well as, in principle, we have opened negotiations with all the G7 countries,” Zhovkva said.
“The process is underway, we need guarantees as soon as possible, but there must be a balance between the speed of signing and the content of the document itself. We want this to be a legally binding document, we want it to go through the appropriate approval procedures in each of the countries,” the diplomat said.
“You mentioned the Budapest Memorandum, we definitely don’t need another one or seven more Budapest memoranda,” the deputy head of the President’s Office stressed.
