AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Stefan, reports: The basis for peace negotiations should be respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which means that all occupied territories should be liberated by the Russian Federation, Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO, Nataliia Galibarenko, emphasised in an exclusive interview with AGERPRES. However, she was skeptical about Russia’s real desire for peace talks, as long as it used missiles against the Ukrainian population.
In an interview in Brussels on Friday, on the one-year anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nataliia Galibarenko said that the Allies support Ukraine’s future accession to NATO, but admitted that there was no consensus yet on the timetable.
Many Allies believe that NATO must focus on military support for Ukraine in such a way that it can win the war with Russia, so that it can then begin accession negotiations. On the other hand, Nataliia Galibarenko said, there are countries that believe that „the two processes can go in parallel” and that no one is hindering Ukraine from discussing its accession to NATO, even if without a definite result for the time being.
As for the integration of the means of fight provided by the western Allies to its armed forces, she acknowledged that it was „a very difficult and challenging process”, but that her has to do so as the ammunition and spare parts for the older, Soviet-style weapons are exhausting.
„Now we are facing a very simple sort of reality (…). We have no other option but to switch to western standard weapons, because otherwise there would be a deficit in other things,” Galibarenko explained in her interview with AGERPRES. At the same time, she stressed, when the war is over, the armed forces of Ukraine and those in NATO will be truly compatible on the battlefield.
Nataliia Galibarenko also admitted that there is a real problem with the ammunition available to the Ukrainian armed forces, which was also discussed during the recent high-level visits to Brussels. „The best way out is obviously to accelerate the volume of production. There is no other way,” she stressed.
At the same time, after U.S. president Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv at the beginning of the week, Ukraine is waiting with priority from Washington for air defense and long-range artillery systems, without which, the ambassador pointed out, Ukraine cannot unleash the counter-offensive in order to recover the territories occupied by Russia.
Regarding the problem of corruption in the army, which has recently caused a scandal even at the top of the Ministry of Defense, she said that, beyond punishing those responsible, for whom the leadership of the Ukrainian state has shown its political will, the solution is to bring the procurement system „under real public and civil control”.
AGERPRES: A year ago, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky said that without negotiations there could be no end to the war. Do you still see a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia as the only practical way forward?
Nataliia Galibarenko: I believe that we have a very clear condition for any negotiations and we made it clear, not only to Russians, but also to our international partners, so the basis of this negotiation should be the respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and that means that all occupied territories should be liberated by the Russian Federation, so the people who committed atrocities should be facing responsibility. Russia should also repay what it ruined in my country, it should be a special Tribunal also for those who are guilty, and then if they are ready to go back to the borders of 1991 and completely respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, so I think that can be a basis of negotiations. However, Russia is always playing with the narrative that they favour peaceful negotiations, but you know, the very same day as they for example suggest peaceful negotiations to Ukraine, the same day they are using missiles against our population, so that’s why I don’t have any reason to believe them.
AGERPRES: Last September, Ukraine has applied for NATO membership. How do you assess the real perspectives on Ukraine joining NATO?
Nataliia Galibarenko: The position now, in general, is that everybody, actually NATO supports Ukraine’s membership. Where the contradictions start, is about the timing. The position of many allies is that first Ukraine should focus and also the alliance should focus on military support to Ukraine to win and then, after war, we can start discussing the perspectives of political dialogue, we can start negotiation talks and whatever. We believe and also we have countries that are supporting us to NATO. We believe that the two processes can go in parallel, so we will be providing again in doing our reforms, making real inter-compatibility, and inter-operability with the alliance, and then we can also discuss possible accession, so nobody hinders us, even let to discuss it, even that know without definite results at the moment, so again, not consensus yet about the timing, but in general, everybody in the alliance supports our future membership and also the secretary general made clear on several occasions that Ukraine will become a NATO member state.
AGERPRES: Will Ukraine be able to integrate air defence systems, armoured vehicles and tanks received from western allies into its national defence in a short enough time to make them relevant to the war with Russia?
Nataliia Galibarenko: We are already doing that. However, I will not hide from you that it is a very difficult and challenging process, because when you have many systems coming from many countries, you cannot say that because they are compatible with NATO they cannot be compatible sometimes between themselves, so the idea is that we should do it anyway. Look at the situation now. When the war started, the logic of our partners was that Ukraine should be provided with Soviet-style weapon and weaponry. And that was a very natural decision because we know how to handle this equipment, we have spare parts, we can service it, repair and so on. But with time as the war was going on, the problem is that we don’t have spare parts anymore. For example, we have Soviet-style tanks, but we do not have ammunition for them, so they become useless at some point, and the stocks were depleting eventually, and now we are facing a very simple sort of reality, we have no other choice but to switch to the standard weapons because otherwise, there would be a deficit on other things, and in the long-run, I believe the war would be over, I think also for NATO and Ukraine would be a very good sign for our armed forces because we would be really compatible on the battlefield.
AGERPRES: The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, recently sounded the alarm about a shortage of ammunition and the fact that the war is depleting the stocks of allied countries. Is there a risk of Ukrainian troops running out of ammunition on the front line?
Nataliia Galibarenko: I recognized the problem and it was discussed also with the Secretary General, it was discussed with our allies at Ramstein meeting and it was also raised by minister Kuleba, where he met Jens Stoltenberg and Josep Borrell in Brussels, at the beginning of this week. What is the best way out? The best way out is of course to increase, to speed up the volumes of production, there is no other way, and for that, we believe it should be joint procurement, it should be a more simplified procedures, for example, we are talking about expert control, and of course joint production. For example, during Ramstein meeting, the minister of Defence of France announced that together with Australia they would be producing ammunition 155 for Ukraine and I think that this is a very good example of how people and countries, even from different parts of the world, because Australia is not in the NATO, that they can walk together to help Ukraine with ammunition. So crucial is to have now both political will, politicians, but to be in close contact with companies who are producing weapons and weaponry.
AGERPRES: Some countries have put forward the idea of setting up joint ventures under licence to produce arms in Ukraine itself, which also has a tradition in this area, thus saving money and time on transport. How do you assess this possibility?
Nataliia Galibarenko: Of course, we are interested to have in our territory these joint companies, joint ventures for producing ammunition, and spare parts, for example, even servicing some equipment, but here we have one very obvious problem now, it’s the constant air missile attacks, so in order to secure production or servicing or whatever we are using now more the possibilities of the neighbouring countries, but in perspective, I think it would be very good to have joint ventures on our territory. For example, the Turkish company Bayraktar announced that they would be establishing a factory on Ukrainian territory, but again, we will be facing very serious safety concerns.
AGERPRES: How was your cooperation with the Romanian delegation here at NATO, in this year, since the war began in your country, in February, last year?
Nataliia Galibarenko: I can only be very complimentary about your Mission here and in person about my friend, ambassador Dan (Neculaescu, ed. n.) because they are really our friends. During this year, there were many things where we consulted each other and the (Romanian, ed. n.) delegation (to NATO, ed. n.) was trying to help us as much as they could, and even today, I mean this exhibition (photo exhibition from Ukraine, carried out by AGERPRES at the NATO Hqs., ed. n.) that we opened together, that was the original idea of the Romanian ambassador and the Polish ambassador, and all together, the three of us, we decided that it would be a very good opportunity also to do something at the headquarters, to remind people about this sad anniversary.
AGERPRES: A number of Ukrainian officials have been fined or targeted by disciplinary sanctions in the scandal of the overpriced food products for the troops. Top officials in the Ministry of Defence have been dismissed and it has been rumored that Oleksii Reznikov himself would be removed. Are all these steps a sign that corruption surrounding the military is under control or would you rather say that you are just beginning to uncover the depth of the problem?
Nataliia Galibarenko: I will explain this situation like this: One day, the problem itself was revealed also by some investigation of the journalists. No, it was not so to say something that came as a big surprise, because usually, you know when there is a big Ministry and then, for example, for the sake actually of safety and security we close some public procurement, so some people unfortunately tried to misuse the opportunities they had. I think that what is the most important in this situation is not the crime itself, but how the leadership of Ukraine, and the president in person and then Oleksii Reznikov reacted to what happened.
So they made it clear that this war profiteers, as we call them, will be severely punished according to the Ukrainian system, but this is a personal responsibility. But another thing and I really believe that this is the way out, is to make the system under real public and civil control, so to put again back that all the procurement should be based on a very fair process, it should be made public, what is the contract, and what are the volumes. Of course, keeping something like, you know, very essential, our armed forces, it should be kept under certain secret, but in general, it would be a really fair system, public and open for all competitors and I think that actually our minister of Defence is the right person to proceed with this reforms.
AGERPRES: The American president Joe Biden made this Monday a surprise visit to Ukraine, highlighted by your country and its allies as a strong support signal in a very difficult time. President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of important and crucial negotiations that are bringing the victory closer. Which is the next step of American military support that you expect in this critical moment of the war?
Nataliia Galibarenko: You are right, the visit of president Biden was a very important event for us, and this is also very symbolic, not only to us, because he announced another package of military help to Ukraine, but also in terms of that after one year he is standing on the Ukrainian land, together with Ukrainians and with our president, showing that this is the commitment of all actually American society, to support Ukraine, and I think that this is also a very good message for NATO because a NATO member state president is standing on the Ukrainian land.
What we expect and what we need, is, of course, air defence. This is very crucial, our Ukrainian military already started training on Patriot (system, ed. n.), of course, it will require some time to complete the training, and to do the supply itself, but air defence should be there. We are also counting on long-range artillery because now we are quite limited in our capacity, but in order to have at some point a counteroffensive and to liberate the temporarily occupied territory in Ukraine, we need long-range artillery. It’s not also a taboo I think anymore, we started discussing about aircraft artillery, not only from the USA, but we are discussing with other NATO member states. Now, I mean there is no Yes on their side, but the good thing is that there is no No. And maybe as with tanks actually I do remember last year tanks was a complete taboo to discuss, and now we are getting tanks so to say from the tank coalition, and many countries that have Leopard tanks, for example, they already promised to deliver them to Ukraine.AGERPRES(
