A solid and just peace in Ukraine is possible only in the presence of international security guarantees. The West should continue to support the Ukrainian economy and work to strengthen the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
This was stated by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in his speech at the opening of the Westphalian World Conference in Münster, DW reports.
He added that Berlin will make a decision on the supply of TAURUS cruise missiles to Kyiv in the coming weeks. Peace in Ukraine, the head of the German defense ministry is convinced, is only possible if there are international security guarantees.
"An important aspect of these guarantees is our promise to support Ukraine in the economy and the reform of its armed forces," he said.
Pistorius also noted that the establishment of the NATO-Ukraine Council is a prerequisite for deepening cooperation. And it, in turn, can lead to Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Alliance.
"The Council directs the adoption of relevant decisions at the political level. The more intensive our cooperation is, the faster the path to NATO will be," the German Defense Minister said.
Pistorius noted that Ukraine will receive an invitation to NATO after winning the war. And the Alliance is working to help this victory and "make Ukraine's path to NATO as less complicated as possible."
The further steps of the Western partners in helping Ukraine will be discussed next week during another meeting in the Ramstein format: it will be held at the base of the same name in Germany. Pistorius also spoke about the possible supply of German TAURUS cruise missiles. According to him, this issue will be resolved within one or two weeks. At the same time, the Minister of Defense of Germany emphasized that the delays in making the final decision do not indicate the hesitation of the German government.
"The Federal Republic of Germany should show such prudence, even if it is difficult for our Ukrainian friends to understand," the minister said.
Pistorius emphasized that Germany, when making decisions, carefully calculates their possible consequences.
"TAURUS missiles have a longer range than all of them that have been put into service with Ukraine so far. This is a high-tech industrial product; we are not talking about programming a coffee machine here. There are about 500 such missiles in Germany; half of them are not modernized, the other half need a software update," said the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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