Everything must be arranged so that in the long term Ukrainians can protect themselves from the Russian Federation.

White House spokesman John Kirby said Ukraine needs reliable security guarantees because its people will fear aggression from the Russian Federation even after the end of the war.

In an interview with the Polish publication Interia, he added that until the end of this military conflict one cannot think about Ukraine’s membership in NATO.

“Of course, we believe that in the future Ukraine will be in NATO. Much still needs to be done. We need to think about what security guarantees should be provided to Ukraine within the framework of a defense partnership,” Kirby emphasized.

According to a White House representative, Ukraine will have a long border with the aggressor country, regardless of the timing and outcome of today’s war.

“Ukrainians have a right to fear this. Therefore, everything must be arranged in such a way that in the long term Ukrainians can protect themselves from this possibly still existing threat from Russia,” the official explained.

Kirby noted that Ukraine must work on reforms to join NATO, and Kyiv knows about this.

Security guarantees for Ukraine

In January, Kyiv and London signed a historic “security cooperation agreement” that formalizes military and non-military cooperation between the countries in the long term.

After this, the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said that the United States was planning to sign the same agreement with Ukraine, and on January 15 it became known that Canada had prepared a security agreement with Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin and Kyiv could also agree on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees.

In early February, reported that Ukraine and France were approaching the finalization of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees.

The German agency Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that the agreement with Germany will be signed today, February 16.