Poland, Czechia and Slovakia advocate security guarantees for Ukraine

Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala and Eduard Heger believe that it is not too early to plan post-war security guarantees for Ukraine, reads their joint article for Foreign Affairs.

The heads of three European governments argue for their conviction that there will be no investment and recovery in Ukraine if it cannot protect itself from future aggression.

The prime ministers' article touched on the topic of the July NATO summit in Vilnius, which will be attended by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

They recalled that in 2008, the allies decided that the future of Ukraine (as well as Georgia) should be linked to NATO membership.

"Now is the time for the alliance to lay out a clear and credible path for Ukraine’s membership, if and when Kyiv wishes and when conditions allow. And until then, we must be ready to provide security guarantees, beyond political assurances, that prevent Ukraine from becoming a gray zone once and for all," the article reads.

The heads of the three governments explained that the so-called gray zones, mentioned by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas at a briefing in Zhytomyr on Monday, "create opportunities for authoritarian regimes to sow instability and increase tensions in the world, provoking new wars."