Ukraine planning to sign security agreements with over 20 countries - expert

Hanna Hopko, a Ukrainian public figure and politician, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"The security agreements provide for long-term support for Ukraine. This is an important signal from partners. However, I would like them to be backed by practical steps - a real determination to help Ukraine right now," she said.

According to her, it is necessary to develop bilateral cooperation with partners in increasing the joint production of weapons, economic stability, fair punishment for the aggressor, and the seizure of Russian assets in favor of Ukraine.

"First of all, of course, Ukraine needs weapons to defeat the Russian Federation. Security agreements should also contribute to speeding up the provision of modern weapons to the state," Hopko said.

The politician added that the security agreements are signed to implement the agreements reached at last year's NATO summit in Vilnius, during which Ukraine did not receive a formal invitation to join the military alliance, "but instead, the NATO-Ukraine Council was created to replace the NATO-Ukraine Commission, which is a sign of the strengthening of political ties and an increasingly higher degree of Ukraine's integration with NATO."

She noted that back then Ukraine was also offered to proceed by concluding security agreements with NATO member countries.

At the same time, Hopko said that the signing of the relevant documents "in no way replaces the main strategic goal of Ukraine - membership in NATO." "This is, so to say, a preparatory stage," she said.

"In general, it is planned to sign security agreements with more than 20 countries. As far as I understand, the idea is to sign relevant documents with each NATO member country, and thus actually prepare a certain ground for Ukraine's future membership in the alliance," Hopko said.

In addition, she said that discussions were currently ongoing regarding the ratification of security agreements by the Verkhovna Rada, because without ratification by the parliament, "these are just documents that are associated with the Budapest Memorandum, which was also considered security guarantees, but it did not provide us with the support of strategic partners when Russia started its war against Ukraine in 2014." "We cannot allow this to happen again," she said.

Ukraine has already signed security agreements with the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Denmark.