For Ukraine to win the war against the aggressor, the support of international partners and their provision of timely military assistance is important, and this process should be open and transparent. This was stated by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak in an interview with НВ.
He noted that his initiatives regarding transparency and control of the use of Western weapons appeared long before the issue began to be discussed in society.
"We started making phone calls when Generals Zaluzhny and Milley, as well as Mr. Sullivan are present. On my initiative, we have established weekly briefings in the President's Office, to which we invite representatives of embassies, the British and US military. My deputy Roman Mashovets briefs them. Listens to the military, tells what is happening. There is communication from the frontline. So that our partners do not have any questions and are involved in what is happening. This is very important," said the Head of the Office of the President.
"For the continued provision of timely military aid to Ukraine, it is very important that the process is open," he emphasized.
Andriy Yermak also noted that he has been in constant contact with US President's National Security Advisor Jacob Sullivan, the British side and many other partners of Ukraine for many months.
“I keep working 24/7. My main directions, in addition to those in peacetime, are to ensure that our army receives all the necessary weapons. And today I see the results, in particular, of my work. This is the result of our numerous conversations," said the Head of the President's Office.
He noted that thanks to this work, Ukraine has HIMARS and MLRS.
In addition, according to him, famous personalities are involved in informing the world community about where, how and which Western weapons Ukraine uses.
In particular, during a recent visit to Ukraine, American actor and film director Sean Penn talked with our military, who showed him how HIMARS works.
"For American society to see how it is used. Because there are a lot of manipulations - Russian propaganda spends a lot of money (on disinformation - ed.)," noted Andriy Yermak.
As the Head of the President's Office emphasized, fruitful cooperation with partners is important for Ukraine, since the main goal of our state today is the victory over the enemy - Russia - and the de-occupation of all our territories.
"For this, our military should have everything they need. They have morale, they have professionalism. They have everything except for enough equipment, enough weapons. The main task of Lend-Lease is to ensure that we get everything on time," said Andriy Yermak.
Speaking about the current situation with the development of security guarantees for Ukraine and about the countries that are ready to become guarantors, the Head of the Office of the President noted that negotiations are ongoing with such countries as the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Australia etc.
"We are not interested in Budapest memorandum number two. I think it will be a structure involving a large agreement with many participants, and then there will be additional bilateral, more detailed agreements with our partners. Today, Great Britain and Poland have expressed their interest in such agreements, we are also talking to the US," he noted.
"But we must have guarantees by the time we become NATO members," Andriy Yermak added.
At the same time, the Head of the President's Office assured that Russia will not be among the guarantor countries, even though it wanted it.
"It is impossible to be an aggressor and at the same time a guarantor of security," said Andriy Yermak.
He recalled that a group was created with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to speed up the development of relevant guarantees. Its main goal is to develop recommendations from the inside.
"So that no one tells us that this does not correspond with NATO. There is a person who was the Secretary General of NATO. We agreed that by the end of summer there will be a first document that we will use as recommendations," said the Head of the Office of the President.
Andriy Yermak noted that the Russian Federation invests a lot of money, especially in European countries, to spread the idea of alleged fatigue of war in Ukraine along with calls for negotiations with the aggressor. He emphasized the need to oppose these actions and noted that our government, for its part, uses all possible tools to promote the Ukrainian position - from the speech in the Congress to the speech of the Head of State at the Grammy award ceremony, meetings with famous and influential people.
Also, as the Head of the President's Office said, work is underway to recognize Russia as a state - sponsor of terrorism and to introduce effective sanctions against the aggressor and those who support it.
In addition, according to him, extremely important work is being held on the creation of the Book of Torturers.
"I want every soldier who set foot on our land, his relatives, his children, his family to be also on the lists for sanctions. All of them should know that if you came to kill Ukrainians, your children should not be allowed to study in civilized countries. It is still difficult from a legal point of view, but we are working to ensure that the families of these soldiers cannot even go on vacation to Turkey. Today it is still difficult, but in the future we will definitely achieve it. All of them must bear responsibility for what they have done," summed up Andriy Yermak.