The head of the Czech Foreign Ministry also emphasized the importance of actively supporting Ukraine against the backdrop of Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure.

Against the background of the unleashed war against Ukraine, it is Russia that must provide security guarantees for its neighbors that it will not attack them.

This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky, commenting on the words of French President Emmanuel Macron about some security guarantees for Russia, news writes.

“I think that Russia should mainly give security guarantees to its neighbors that it will not attack them. I think it is important that there should not be any distribution of power without Ukraine, without the countries of Central Europe or the Baltic States. I think that the Russian leadership should bear responsibility for starting an aggressive war and trying to change borders in Europe by force,” said Lypavskyi.

The minister also emphasized the importance of actively supporting the country that was attacked. Lipavsky noted that against the backdrop of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in winter, aid priorities are changing. “The emphasis is on providing air defense means, in this matter the Czech Republic is completely unable to play the necessary role, but in other matters we fulfill it,” the Czech minister said.

According to him, specific humanitarian projects are aimed, for example, at the supply of diesel generators, in particular for hospitals.

Lipavskyi also said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic is working on the creation of the position of the Commissioner for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. The proposal to create the position will be submitted to the government in January.

According to mass media, the candidate is Tomasz Kopechny, who will leave the post of deputy for industrial cooperation at the Ministry of Defense at the end of the year. However, Lypavskyi refused to comment on personnel matters.

Security guarantees for Russia – what is known about Macron’s idea

In early December, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke about the need to provide Russia with security guarantees after the end of the war against Ukraine. Macron believes that such guarantees in the context of NATO expansion in future negotiations between Ukraine and its allies and Russia will become one of the issues on which the world will depend.

In response to this initiative of the French president, the diplomats of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia expressed their disagreement to Macron in writing. They presented a written demarche to the director of the Continental Europe Department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland separately also criticized Macron’s statement regarding the need to provide “security guarantees” for the Russian Federation. They emphasized that the West’s recognition of the presence of Russian troops on the territory of another state means that international law is no longer relevant.

Ukraine responded harshly to such an initiative by the French president. Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the NSDC, said that the fact that the European judicial system is humane and the sentence in The Hague does not involve execution can be considered a guarantee of security for the Russian Federation. He emphasized that now it is necessary to guarantee the security of peace from Russia, and not the other way around.

Despite the criticism, Emmanuel Macron continues to insist that if Russia does not receive security guarantees from the West, a new war will cover the entire European continent. In his opinion, the refusal to provide Russia with such guarantees provokes an “integral war that will cover the entire continent.”