KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Friday intensified a call for concrete security assurances from Kyiv’s allies in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
Speaking in the Ukrainian capital, they urged allies to go beyond symbolic gestures and deliver a framework that looks and feels like NATO’s Article 5 — the alliance’s common defense provision.
“Currently, negotiations are underway virtually every day on the specific content of security guarantees for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, advocating for “guarantees like Article 5 … and these are really effective security guarantees. This is the result we need to achieve.”
It a result of a quickening of diplomatic efforts to end the war launched by Russia more than three years ago following U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting last week in Alaska with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. That was following by Zelenskyy and European leaders, as well as Rutte, meeting Trump in the White House on Monday.
Any peace deal needs to ensure that Ukraine cannot be attacked again by Russia, and likely involves both sending more weapons to Ukraine as well as deploying European troops to the country. However, Russia has already said it will oppose any NATO forces in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy framed the ask in practical terms: Allies must clarify “which countries help us on the ground, which work for the security of our skies, which guarantee security at sea.”
He flagged delays in F-16 jet fighter deliveries as symptomatic of broader coordination issues. “Yes, it is not yet complete, we do not have all the airplanes that we need, but … these are airplanes, they will not be enough to guarantee us safety in the sky,” he said.
This comes as NATO military chiefs convened virtually on Wednesday to hammer out the details of possible security guarantees — and to begin fleshing out military and diplomatic options ahead of any formal peace talks.
Rutte emphasized the urgency of acting and the need to give Kyiv iron-clad assurances. “Our new guarantees should not be like the Budapest Memorandum or the Minsk negotiations,” he warned, referring to the 1994 accord signed in the Hungarian capital that offered Ukraine (failed) guarantees in return for giving up its nuclear weapons, and the unsuccessful 2014 Minsk talks following Russia’s illegal seizure of Crimea.
Rutte outlined a “two-layer” approach: First, fortify Ukraine’s own military strength; second, build binding commitments from the U.S. and Europe.
“They must be of such a level that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, sitting in Moscow, would never even think of attacking Ukraine again,” the NATO chief said.
Adding to the pressure to European contributions to security guarantees, Trump — speaking after Monday’s White House meetings — reaffirmed his administration’s willingness to be involved in providing Ukraine with security assurances.
Trump ruled out deploying U.S. ground troops, and he’s also against Ukraine joining NATO, but he did signal openness to offering American air support, saying Europe should take the “first line of defense” while the U.S. “would help them … by air.”
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report from Kyiv.
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