Ukraine can be secure only as part of the West, former FM Klimkin says

The former official made the remarks at the Made in Ukraine event hosted by NV Radio.

“We can [eventually] feel relative security—I emphasize, not absolute security,” Klimkin commented on the ongoing discussions of post-war security guarantees for Kyiv.

“We will not feel absolute security even within NATO…, but only as part of the collective West. When the West understands that we are worth something in its system, it will consider what is more important for its internal stability and relations, and it will decide what security forces to deploy, where, in what numbers and under what mandate. That’s all critically important. But the only real security option for us is to become part of the West.”

Klimkin added that neither Ukraine nor the West yet knows how to reach such an arrangement. 

“No other option will give us even relative security,” he reiterated.

“Security components alone are good, and the West will work for its own security. But the only thing that offers us a future is the prospect of becoming part of the West—whether we like it or not. There is no other way.”

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials will meet to discuss Western security guarantees for Ukraine on Aug. 29.