Ukraine should take position of strength and only then think about negotiations - Rutte
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has named Ukraine's main task before thinking about starting negotiations with Russia and a possible peace agreement to end the war.
According to Censor.NET, Rutte said this during a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda in Brussels.
"At the evening meeting, we will discuss everything that currently concerns Ukraine and how we can do our best to reach a position of strength so that one day when Zelenskyy decides to start negotiations with the Russians on how to stop all this, it is obvious that it should be (started) by Ukrainians and only from a position of strength," Rutte said.
At the same time, the NATO Secretary General added, since all the other leaders of the allied countries are coming to Brussels, it was decided to invite several of them to a meeting to discuss two things.
First, what can be done to deliver more air defense systems and other weapons to Ukraine. He recalled that Ukrainians need an additional 19 air defense systems to protect critical energy infrastructure.
"But also in general, they need more support to ensure that they can take a position of strength and have the ability to prevent what is happening now," Rutte said.
Second, he said, to discuss the issue of economic support for Ukraine. For this purpose, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Antonio Costa were invited.
At the same time, Rutte commented on the spread of various rumors about what a peace agreement should look like and what security guarantees should be
"You know my position. I believe that we should now focus on enabling Ukraine to reach this position of strength," Rutte emphasized.
The NATO Secretary General believes that a potential peace agreement and security guarantees should be discussed only after Ukraine is in a position of strength. In particular, all these points should be discussed only when President Zelenskyy, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and others are sitting at the negotiating table. And this discussion should depend on them.
Rutte believes that if we start discussing publicly only among the allies what this peace agreement should look like, it will not be a useful step.
To recap, European Council President Antonio Costa said that Ukraine can count on the EU's support.
