Prime Minister Mark Rutte sees only a modest role for EU security guarantees for Ukraine. It is believed that NATO and individual NATO countries have the lead in this matter.

European Union leaders at their summit in Brussels on Thursday will talk about ensuring Ukraine’s security as long as the country has not yet become a member of NATO and/or the European Union. Upon his arrival in the Belgian capital, Rutte said that “the European path is additional” to the insurance that NATO countries want to provide.

According to the Prime Minister, it is still not clear what guarantees the EU will be able and willing to provide. For example, whether the Confederation wants to promise a steady supply of arms or less controversial goods, and how this will be arranged. “This is a delicate matter, of course.” Austria, Malta and Ireland are traditionally neutral and do not want to send weapons. And a country like Hungary, considered the member state most sympathetic to the Kremlin, has long been against military aid to Ukraine.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said upon his arrival that Austria, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus had already objected “clearly”. “It is clear to us as neutral countries that this cannot be done.”

On the other hand, the Netherlands, on the other hand, is in principle “strongly supportive of these agreements” and wants to “play a leading role wherever possible,” according to Rutte. He notes that the Netherlands already wants to contribute to Ukraine’s security guarantees with a number of allies “with F-16s, for example”. “Now we are training” Ukrainian pilots, but “of course we hope” to deliver combat aircraft as well. But this step has not yet been taken.

NATO CEO Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were also invited via video link to the working lunch at the summit dedicated to Ukraine. Stoltenberg said beforehand that Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO would be discussed at the NATO summit in Vilnius next month. He declined to comment on security guarantees from individual NATO countries.