Bilateral pact does not guarantee US will defend Kyiv but could make it easier to enter peace agreement with Russia
Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy will sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement at the G7 summit in Italy, as arguments continued on the sidelines about how the west can provide a Donald Trump-proof $50bn loan to Ukraine.
Kyiv has signed 15 bilateral security agreements with other countries since the full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022, including with the UK, France, Germany and Italy. The US-Ukraine agreement does not require the authorisation of Congress and could be undone by a future Trump administration. Biden has said previously that guarantees for Ukraine would be equivalent to those to Israel, covering financial and military assistance as well as the possibility of the joint weapons production.
The two leaders will hold a press conference later on Thursday, where differences over a timetable for Ukraine’s bid to join Nato and the introduction of foreign military trainers inside Ukraine are likely to be on view. The bilateral agreements have been viewed in Ukraine as a stopgap on the road to joining Nato.
Ukraine will also sign a bilateral deal with Japan on Thursday.
“The document with the United States will be unprecedented, as it should be for leaders who support Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
