KYIV: Kyiv said on Friday it was asking Italy for more information about a proposal by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to extend NATO’s mutual defense umbrella to Ukraine without offering it alliance membership or sending peacekeeping troops.
Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its Western allies ahead of any peace talks to end Russia’s invasion. It wants NATO membership but the United States under President Donald Trump has rejected this.
Britain, France and other countries are also drawing up plans to deploy European troops to safeguard a potential ceasefire under a future peace deal. Russia opposes such plans but Trump has said he believes Moscow might agree.
Meloni, leader of a far-right nationalist party in Italy, is an ally of Trump but has remained a strong public supporter of Ukraine.
On the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, she said extending NATO’s Article 5 collective security agreement would be a more “lasting solution” than sending European peacekeepers or granting Kyiv full membership.
Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty requires all alliance members to consider an attack on any of them to be an attack on all.
“We welcome this statement as part of the discussion on providing Ukraine with long-term security guarantees and ensuring security and peace in general,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said at a briefing in Kyiv.
“As for this proposal specifically, we are in contact with our Italian colleagues to clarify the specifics of this proposal,” Tykhyi said, adding that Ukraine still wants its partners to send troop contingents as part of any peace effort.
Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told Ukrainian television on Friday that Meloni’s idea was “very pragmatic.”
Following a massive Russian air strike on Ukraine’s energy system on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated a call made earlier this week for a truce covering air and sea, though not ground troops, as a first step toward peace.
Kyiv seeks more information about Meloni proposal for security guarantees
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Kyiv seeks more information about Meloni proposal for security guarantees
- Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its Western allies ahead of any peace talks to end Russia’s invasion
- It wants NATO membership but the United States under President Donald Trump has rejected this
Danish general says there are no Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland
- “There are Chinese and Russian vessels in the Arctic Ocean, but not near Greenland,” Major General Soren Andersen said
- He had extended an invitation for the US to join exercises planned on the island this year
NUUK: The head of Denmark’s military Joint Arctic Command said on Friday that there were no Chinese or Russian ships observed near Greenland, despite repeated claims by US President Donald Trump to the contrary.
Trump says Greenland is vital to US security and has not ruled out the use of force to take it. European nations this week sent small numbers of military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request.
“We don’t see any Russian or Chinese vessels around Greenland... there are Chinese and Russian vessels in the Arctic Ocean, but not near Greenland,” Major General Soren Andersen told Reuters.
Speaking on board a Danish warship in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, Andersen said that he had extended an invitation for the United States to join exercises planned on the island this year.
“We had a meeting today with a lot of NATO partners including the US and invited them to participate in this exercise,” said Andersen. When asked if the Americans will join, the general replied “I don’t know that yet.”
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command enforces sovereignty and conducts surveillance, fisheries inspection and search-and-rescue across Greenland and the Faroe Islands, drawing on patrol vessels, aircraft, helicopters and satellite-based monitoring.
Headquartered in Nuuk, it also fields Greenland’s Sirius dog-sled patrol for long-range land operations and maintains about 150 staff across command, logistics and fixed Arctic stations.
Responding to Trump’s criticism that Denmark does too little to defend Greenland, Copenhagen last year announced a 42 billion Danish crowns ($6.54 billion) Arctic defense package.
