Ukraine, Allies Start Shaping Military Security Guarantees, Yermak Says

Ukraine and its Western partners have started detailed work on the military dimension of prospective security guarantees for Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Wednesday. Yermak added that the government is also drafting contingency plans should Russia seek to prolong the war or impede planned meetings between leaders. He cautioned that any new arrangements must avoid the shortcomings of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for assurances that failed to deter Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea or its 2022 full-scale invasion.