Ukrainian FM Kuleba: security guarantees being drawn up for Ukraine

MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) - Security guarantees are being developed for Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

"Routine work is ongoing to draw up these guarantees, and I assure you that this work is taking place with all key countries from which we would like to receive such guarantees. But it is not in the news, because real expert work is underway at the moment," Ukrainian media quoted Kuleba as saying in an interview during the national telethon on Monday.

The issue of security guarantees "is being tackled actively and quite productively" by head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Office Andriy Yermak, who has set up the Yermak-Rasmussen group, he said.

"They are doing very important work, which I would call the second phase of the diplomatic struggle for security guarantees," Kuleba said.

According to Kuleba, the goal of the first stage of this "diplomatic struggle" for security guarantees was to convince Ukraine's partners that if they are not admitting Ukraine to NATO now, Ukraine cannot exist without security guarantees between the present moment and until it is accepted into NATO.

"And at that stage, we managed to persuade them to accept this logic," he said.

During the second stage, the focus of the Yermak-Rasmussen group is to find an intellectual groundwork for the parties' agreement that will meet the interests of Ukraine, Kuleba said.

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