Podoliak: A referendum must be held before Ukraine signs a security guarantee agreement
Ukraine will be able to sign an international agreement on security guarantees only after a national referendum on this issue
This was stated by the Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President, Mykhailo Podoliak, who is taking part in talks with Russia, at a briefing on March 29 in Turkey.
"A very important question is how this will be implemented.
The main thing for us is for the state to communicate with the society and get positive results of what we will offer because this is a completely different security scheme that Ukraine will receive," the adviser said.
He explained that as a result of signing such an agreement, Ukraine will have completely different–from a power point of view–relations with countries that will be guarantors for our state.
Therefore, implementing the decision of this agreement will follow the following procedure:
- First, it will be a referendum where all citizens will voice their position on this agreement and on how it should work,
- this will be followed by ratification by the parliaments of the guarantor countries and the parliament of Ukraine.
Podoliak explained that the key issue in this matter is that the government should "get the support of society so that this decision is really consolidating for Ukraine."
To recap, on March 27, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine could decide on neutral status in a referendum.
This will be faster than making appropriate changes to the Constitution which would take at least a year.
He also called on Russia to withdraw its troops to the positions they held until February 24 to start a dialogue on the Donbas issue.
Note.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the final format of compromises on security guarantees and temporarily occupied territories in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia could be put to an all-Ukrainian referendum.
According to Ukrainian law, all-Ukrainian and local referendums are prohibited under martial law.
A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, acknowledged that Ukraine has the right to hold referendums, but stressed that the terms of peace with Russia are being discussed by delegations.