Ukraine needs a defense alliance with those who know they will be attacked – Chaly

Ukraine should focus on creating a subregional defense alliance, says former Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly. He expressed this opinion in an interview with LIGA.net.

"That is, with those who are ready, who understand that the Russians will come to them. At least with some countries, to break the ice. Because these agreements, which supposedly have security guarantees, are not about security guarantees," the diplomat said, adding that these documents created an illusion and "we found ourselves with nothing again."

In particular, Chaly mentioned the agreement with Britain. The ex-ambassador called the document the most detailed and large-scale, but it has not yet been ratified.

"Well, I assume that we need a nuclear component. We are not closing the nuclear component ourselves now. It can only be in cooperation with partners. These are nuclear Great Britain and France," he noted.

Chaly again mentioned the agreement with Britain on a 100-year partnership.

"We do not have an allied defense agreement with any country in the world. But, in principle, we could get one under these conditions, as long as they see in Europe that they will not gather a million defense forces. No country in Europe, I assert this, will gather a million defense forces, especially ground forces," the diplomat said.

Chaly, continuing his thoughts on the defense alliance, suggested that if it were Britain, Poland, and Britain, then this would be roughly proportional to the population of Russia, because "human resources are important." Poland, he said, has enough military personnel, and Britain has technology and nuclear weapons.

"You can't do without the Scandinavian countries here, because they also sense the next direction of attack. And there is such an alliance of seven Baltic countries, already created today, which can be considered a subregional alliance. NATO does not prohibit this," he clarified.

• In January 2024, an agreement on cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the field of security was signed.
• On January 16, 2025, Zelenskyy and Starmer signed an agreement on a 100-year partnership between the countries.