The agreement does not include the same security guarantees as NATO members. It also does not require the deployment of NATO forces in Ukraine.
17:50•Updated 17:55
According to the Wall Street Journal newspaper (you will be transferred to another service) Britain, Germany and France propose a defense agreement between NATO and Ukraine.
The magazine’s information is based on anonymous official sources. They confirm the British Prime Minister Rishi Sun too presented at the Munich Security Conference (you will switch to another service) the proposal that NATO should decide on permanent military support for Ukraine at its summit in Vilnius this summer.
– We should formulate a new agreement at the Vilnius meeting, with which we will help Ukraine to repel Russian attacks in the future as well, Sunak said (you switch to another service).
According to the WSJ, Germany and France support the proposal. The countries see the promise of permanent armed support if necessary as an incentive for Ukraine to start peace talks.
According to Sunak, Western countries must support Ukraine with weapons that give it a “decisive advantage” in a war situation. According to Sunak, such support also includes fighter jets.
The agreement is an attempt to persuade Ukraine to negotiate
According to the officials interviewed by the WSJ, Britain, Germany and France are not ready to support Ukraine indefinitely if there is a long-term conflict ahead.
– We repeat the message “Russia must not win”, but what does that even mean? If the war continues for a long time at this intensity, Ukraine will not be able to withstand the losses caused by the war. And no one believes Ukraine could retake Crimea either, a senior French official told the WSJ.
So the idea is that if an agreement is made with Ukraine that obligates NATO to help it whenever necessary, Ukraine could agree to peace negotiations with Russia knowing that it has security guarantees from the West.
According to an unnamed British official, the purpose of the defense agreement would be to send a message to Russia that Western support for Ukraine will not end.
According to the official, this should make Russia realize that it cannot achieve its military goals in Ukraine.
The agreement does not include the same security guarantees as NATO members
According to WSJ information, the proposed defense agreement does not include the possibility that NATO forces would be stationed in Ukraine.
It also does not give Ukraine the same Article 5 security guarantees as NATO member states.
However, according to the WSJ’s sources, the agreement would allow Ukraine to use NATO weapons systems, and its armed forces would be “integrated into the production chains of the defense industry of Western countries”.