On Thursday, 30 May 2024, the Foreign Policy Research Institute with the organisational support of the GDIP hold a roundtable discussion entitled Security Guarantees for Ukraine: Could They Be an Alternative to NATO Membership. Among the event’s speakers were Yurii Kostenko, politician, member of the Commission for Nuclear Policy and Environmental Security, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of five convocations, Minister of Protection of Natural Environment and Nuclear Security of Ukraine (1995–98); Oleksandr Musiienko, Head of the Centre for Military and Legal Studies; Pavlo Zhovnirenko, Adviser to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Strategic Studies; Valentyn Badrak, Director of the Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies; Mykola Sunhurovskyi, Director of Military Programmes at the Razumkov Centre.
Hryhorii Perepelytsia, political scientist, international conflict expert, and Foreign Policy Research Institute Director moderated the event.  Opening the event, he outlined the topic’s significance, highlighting the positive and negative experiences of the main principles of our country’s defence, particularly deterrence, resilience and Ukraine’s interaction with the world. Mr Perepelytsia described the process of the state leadership’s search for a security model for Ukraine. He also provided details on the creation and main points of the Kyiv Security Compact, the purpose of security guarantees and their legal status. The Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute noted that ‘Ukraine, unfortunately, was left alone with such a powerful enemy who was preparing in advance for a war with the West, and now this mission has fallen to us. That is why today there is an active debate on how to protect the country because we are facing an enemy that is not only pursuing the destruction of Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation but also aims to change the entire world order. Ukraine alone cannot withstand such a huge threat, and this requires certain collective efforts, unity, and the definition of formats on how we can protect ourselves and Europe from this invasion of ruscism.’
It is necessary to point out that the format of the event featured not only guest speeches but also discussions on such issues as the Ukrainian version of security guarantees in comparison to other security agreement models (NATO membership, MNNA, Budapest Memorandum, US–Israel security interaction models, economic recovery and defence support for South Korea and Japan, NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partnerships, etc.); the purpose of security guarantees: collective defence, deterrence of attacks, or Ukraine’s self-defence; the Kyiv Security Compact and its requirements regarding security guarantees for Ukraine; the content, legal considerations, and mechanisms of implementing security guarantees for Ukraine: expectations, recommendations, and actual results.
Representatives of the diplomatic corps, employees of the embassies of Austria, Egypt, Georgia, the Netherlands, and Uzbekistan, as well as veterans of the diplomatic service, members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, universities, media, public figures, and scholars, joined the event.