From: Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (688th day): The big news for today is that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have signed a bilateral security agreement. The agreement will remain in force until Ukraine joins NATO.
This agreement was the first in the field of security agreements to implement the agreements agreed upon during the Vilnius NATO summit between Ukraine, members of the G7 group, and the states that joined them.
In a press conference after signing the Agreement President Zelenskyy used the words “security guarantees” or “guarantees” when describing the agreement.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, chose a different term when he spoke about the signed document, emphasizing several times that the agreement concerns “security assurances”.
It is crucial to remember that the language used has significant political repercussions. The phrase “security assurances” is problematic for Ukraine because it was used in the title of the notorious Budapest Memorandum. Then Ukraine was giving up nuclear arsenal and status of nuclear power in exchange for “security assurances” from UK, USA and ruzzia. Of course, when ruzzia started attaking Ukraine in 2014 and even with big invasion in 2022 “security assurances” didn’t mean much.
Today’s agreement between Ukraine and UK is called historic in media. Hopefully it will be more functional than Budapest Memorandum.
Voice of Ukraine 