The G7 group of Western economic powers wants to better protect Ukraine with long-term military and financial aid as long as it is not yet a NATO member. On Wednesday, the United States and Great Britain announced a corresponding agreement by the group of states, to which Germany also belongs, on the fringes of the NATO summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of an “important signal”. “If the G7 countries announce these guarantees today, then it will be an important, concrete success for us,” he said.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy’s hopes for an invitation from Ukraine to join NATO were dashed. He had sharply criticized this and spoke of a weakness in the West that played into Russia’s hands. The invitation was blocked primarily by the United States and Germany, Ukraine’s two most important arms suppliers. As before, they want to provide the country attacked by Russia with concrete military aid so that it can better defend itself.
On the second day of the summit, Selenskyj was forgiving. One could “state that the results of the summit are nice,” he said after the announcement of the security commitments. But an invitation to join NATO “would have been ideal”. However, it is clear that this will not happen as long as the war continues.
Protect from further aggression
Specifically, the G7 project is about bilateral agreements between the individual states with the aim of protecting Ukraine from further aggression in the future. According to information from the USA and Great Britain, these include various forms of military support, the exchange of intelligence information, cyber support and training programs for the Ukrainian military. “We can never allow what happened in Ukraine to be repeated and this statement reaffirms our commitment to ensure that she is never again subjected to the kind of brutality that Russia inflicted on her,” said the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
However, the agreement will probably fall far short of the security guarantee that NATO membership would offer. Then the military duty of assistance of the other NATO members would apply, including the dispatch of soldiers in the event of an attack from outside.
US President Joe Biden had already outlined a protection scenario for Kiev in a CNN interview broadcast on Sunday. The US is ready to offer Ukraine similar protection to Israel after Russia’s war of aggression ends, he said. In the proposal, Biden referred to the period between the end of the war and a possible NATO membership. The process for a country to join the western military alliance takes time. In the meantime, the US could provide Russia-invaded Ukraine with the necessary weapons and capabilities to defend itself. However, Biden emphasized that this would only be conceivable in the event of a ceasefire and a peace agreement.
More guns from Great Britain
The United States supports Israel with around 3.8 billion US dollars every year – a considerable part of which goes to defense against missiles and military technology. No country in the world has received more US support since World War II, according to a recent report by the US Congressional Research Service. The United States is already providing massive support to Ukraine: According to its own statements, it has provided or pledged more than $40 billion in military aid since the start of the war at the end of February 2022.
Great Britain also announced on Wednesday that it would send Ukraine more than 70 additional combat and logistics vehicles as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition for the provided Challenger 2 main battle tanks. This ensures that Ukrainian units have the means to transport ammunition and equipment, evacuate injured soldiers and recover damaged vehicles. In addition, Great Britain wants to set up a medical rehabilitation center to “support the recovery and return of soldiers to the defense lines of Ukraine after combat injuries”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the delivery of additional weapons as the most important task in supporting Ukraine. “Of course, the most urgent task is to ensure that Ukraine can prevail. Because if Ukraine does not exist, there is no question of membership,” he said. Stoltenberg and Zelenskyj then went to the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council, an instrument for the country’s further rapprochement with NATO.
New weapon pack from Germany
Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised Ukraine a new weapons package worth almost 700 million euros at the start of the summit on Tuesday. This includes tanks, Patriot anti-aircraft devices and 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition. In the negotiations on the summit document, however, Germany had opposed a clear prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine with a roadmap. On the edge of the summit, Scholz also met with Selenskyj for a one-to-one conversation.
Selenskyj said on Wednesday that he was satisfied with the NATO summit. Kiev wanted to join NATO faster, but sometimes it was difficult to make certain things understandable to the partners, he said. Nevertheless, he received “important signals” during the bilateral talks that his country would join NATO. “Ukraine fully understands that it cannot become a NATO member while the war is ongoing,” he said. An important result is security guarantees for Ukraine on the way to NATO membership. These are a “very important signal”.
