Ukraine Should Not Agree To Limits On Size Of Its Armed Forces Admiral Bauer

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) He made the remarks in an interview with Ukrinform on the sidelines of a special event hosted by the Brussels office of the Kyiv Security Forum.

"I think there's two elements that are extremely important when it comes to a just peace. One is that Ukraine remains a truly sovereign state, which can decide its own future and its alliances. And that means credible Armed Forces. That means the ability to run the country as the people of Ukraine want. All these demands from Russia that there shouldn't be credible Armed Forces in Ukraine are unacceptable," Bauer said.

He added that, second, there must be credible means of deterring the aggressor from invading again.

"People often talk about security guarantees, but there should be credible deterrents to make sure that Russia understands that, if they try again, they will fail," the Dutch admiral said.

In his opinion, unless these two conditions are met, it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will be able to accept any peace settlement proposal.

He believes that even territorial concessions could form part of a settlement, but only if the two conditions outlined above are met.

"Also, it's not about giving away lands. You could say that you are accepting that you have no control over these territories, but you're not accepting that they are Russian. No de jure recognition. It's only accepting the situation only to end the war," he said.

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At the same time, drawing on the experience of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Bauer believes it is unlikely that anything short of a mechanism as close as possible to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty would be an acceptable option.

Speaking about the security of the entire European continent, the admiral also said that Ukraine must genuinely become "part of our security in the larger sense, when it comes to Europe."

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