Recent agreements with Ukraine's allies do not include provisions obligating them to fight alongside Ukraine in the event of renewed Russian aggression. Oleksandr Khara, a foreign and security policy expert at the Center for Defense Strategies, says these deals are just security assurances, Slawa TV has reported.
At the same time, Russia shows no readiness to end the war
According to Khara, there are no signs that the Kremlin is prepared for peace.
He stresses that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no intention of accepting proposals coordinated by Ukraine with its European allies and the US, and instead plans to continue the war.
"These are assurances, not security guarantees"
Khara reiterates that the current arrangements should not be described as security guarantees.
“I welcome the formalization of long-term support for Ukraine, but these are not security guarantees. They are security assurances,” he says.
He notes that neither the legal wording of the declarations nor the public rhetoric contains any indication that partners are prepared to fight alongside Ukraine if Russia launches another attack.
This echoes the Budapest Memorandum, where similar vague assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK failed to deter Russian aggression despite promises of respect for Ukraine's sovereignty for giving up nuclear weapons.
NATO remains the only real guarantee
In Khara's view, NATO membership remains the only credible security guarantee for Ukraine.
Such membership would distribute the risks of war with Russia among all 32 NATO member states, while their combined military and nuclear capabilities would serve as a genuine deterrent to further Kremlin aggression.
At the same time, Khara points out that Ukraine’s partners are not considering NATO accession, instead offering mechanisms resembling Article 5, a fact that, he argues, clearly demonstrates the difference between assurances and true guarantees.
Despite this, he assesses the signing of the documents positively, noting that they will legally and politically secure long-term support for Ukraine for decades to come.
