Polish general tells what NATO security guarantees for Ukraine should look like

Waldemar Skrzyczak, a Polish general and former commander of the Polish Army, expressed this opinion in an interview with Ukrinform.

"At the NATO summit, we need to make a decision that Kyiv has been asking for for a long time - to close the airspace over Ukraine. In this case, Russia will not be able to launch missiles at Ukraine, and their planes will not be able to fly there," Skrzyczak said.

According to him, if Russia continues to do so, NATO must guarantee the security of Ukraine's airspace by "sending its air forces to Ukraine to protect the Ukrainian sky." He added that the Alliance has the capabilities to guarantee this.

The second step, he said, is to ensure security in the Black Sea.

"It is necessary to conduct an operation under the auspices of NATO to clear the sea of mines that limit the functioning of Ukraine's economy, and then open Ukrainian ports. At the same time, we need to send a clear signal to Russia: in case of further aggressive actions in this region, NATO will send its contingent to protect its partner," the former Polish Army Commander emphasized.

He is convinced that the Alliance should guarantee security in Ukraine with its troops, which will allow for further reconstruction and development of the country.

Skrzyczak also believes that security guarantees should be provided to Ukraine not by individual countries, but by NATO in general.

"I am convinced that the division of the Organization's countries into groups is unreasonable today. There should be a consolidated position of the Alliance that this military mission (if established - ed.) should be under the NATO flag and the Alliance should provide Ukraine with security guarantees," the Polish general said.

He called it very risky if only a few countries - Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states - do this. According to the expert, this will give Putin the argument that he is not at war with NATO, but has individual enemies within the Alliance. Thus, the Russian dictator's scenario will be realized: Russia is not threatened by the entire Alliance, but by Poland, which he has been talking about a lot lately, and the Baltic states.

He believes that everything possible should be done to ensure that the Alliance provides political, but above all, military security guarantees to Ukraine at the Vilnius summit.

"I think this is realistic, there is no need to divide NATO," Skrzyczak summarized.

As reported, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently said in an interview with The Guardian that if NATO does not provide Ukraine with clear membership prospects and clear security guarantees at the Vilnius summit, some NATO countries, including Poland, will be able to provide military assistance on their own, including sending their troops into Ukraine.

At the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, Ukraine wants to receive clear security guarantees from its allies and a clear membership perspective.