Russia is wrong if it thinks that time is playing in its favor because international support for Ukraine is going to wane, warns the G7 joint statement signed today in Vilnius, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, a document that offers “commitments of security” to Kyiv to ensure that “it will be able to defend itself and repel any future attacks. The G7 leaders “will be on Ukraine’s side as it fends off Russian aggression for as long as it takes,” said Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak, Giorgia Meloni, Fumio Kishida and Justine Trudeau, representing United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada. Spain and other European countries that do not belong to the G7 have also joined the declaration and will also offer their own security guarantees to Ukraine, government sources have reported.
The text formally marks the start of talks with the G7 countries to sign “bilateral agreements” with Ukraine to guarantee it political, military and economic support while it “defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity, protects its citizens and moves forward with its integration.” in the Euro-Atlantic community”. Specifically, the G7 commits to the “sustained delivery” to Kyiv of “modern military equipment by air, land and sea, giving priority to air defense, artillery and long-range weapons.” The guarantor countries will organize “joint military maneuvers” with Ukraine and “share information from intelligence services” while strengthening the country’s “economic resilience”, supporting its reconstruction and taking steps to hold Moscow “accountable” and paying for the crimes committed, including attacks on civilian infrastructure.
In exchange for these guarantees, the Ukrainian authorities will undertake to promote “effective reforms” with a view to “Euro-Atlantic integration.” President Volodimir Zelenski has celebrated the G7 declaration, “the first legal document” that specifies “the security guarantees” that Ukraine has in the long term, a step that will be completed shortly with the signing of bilateral agreements with the guarantor countries. With this new security architecture, assistance to the country “will not be based solely on personal relationships but on a legal framework” that will define the “security umbrella” that Kyiv has, a crucial step to shield international support, both military as economic, in the face of possible political ups and downs in the medium and long term. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has assured that the EU will be “a key partner” in the security guarantees of the G7 partners to Kyiv. In addition to Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Norway and Iceland have also joined the plan and will participate in the initiative to offer security to the country.
For Zelensky, these bilateral agreements will serve as a bridge until Ukraine becomes a full member of the Atlantic Alliance, but they are not a substitute for joining the military organization. “Security guarantees are very important for the Ukrainian people, but they are guarantees in view of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, not instead of,” the Ukrainian leader said at a joint press conference with the allied secretary general , Jens Stoltenberg. “I am confident that after the war we will join NATO, we will do everything possible to make it so,” he stressed minutes before participating in the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council.
Zelenski has expressed his satisfaction with the declaration approved yesterday by the Alliance in Vilnius. Although for his country, “the optimal” would have been an invitation to enter immediately, “Ukrainians are reasonable people and we understand that you are afraid to talk about it now because nobody wants to have a world war,” he stressed. “Ukraine understands that it cannot be a member of NATO as long as there is a war on our territory but the signals matter” and the set of signals coming out of Vilnius bring the country closer to the Alliance, the Ukrainian leader said in a conciliatory tone, who yesterday he tried to influence the final negotiation of the communiqué through a harsh tweet in which he accused the allies of showing “weakness” towards Russia.
