Veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war and retired National Guard of Ukraine Major Oleksii Hetman shared his opinions on Espreso TV.“When they talk about all these security guarantees, including a possible foreign contingent in Ukraine, they immediately clarify that this would come later. That is, not now, but after the war is over. In my personal opinion, when the fighting ends, we won’t really need that contingent, to be honest. So the main task now is to stop the fighting,” emphasized Oleksii Hetman.Therefore, he says, Ukraine primarily needs weapons to stop Vladimir Putin.“We need weapons, the 100 billion immediately for purchasing arms – this is the most important thing for us. In addition, I note that after the negotiations in France, there were statements about some ‘long missiles.’ What exactly that is, no one knows for sure, but most likely it refers to short- and medium-range missiles. We might get them immediately with political approval to use them, because, you understand, they can be delivered but banned from use. It’s good that we are moving in this direction, but for now there are no specifics. At the moment, there are more questions than answers,” the veteran said.Regarding talks about security guarantees, Oleksii Hetman recalled the rare earth metals agreement between Ukraine and the United States. The retired major said this deal was supposed to align Ukrainian and American interests and stipulated that the United States would protect its investments. However, for now, Russia continues its massive attacks, including on an American plant in Zakarpattia.“All these talks about security guarantees remain just talks for now. You can say ‘sugar’ a hundred times, but it won’t taste any sweeter. Any security guarantee must have a foundation, a list of actions. If a country or a group of countries guarantees our security, it must be an international treaty ratified by the parliament of the country we are dealing with. It must clearly specify what actions they will take and in what cases, not just say that they stand for everything good and against everything bad,” emphasized Oleksii Hetman.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also emphasized in Paris the need for mandatory ratification of security guarantees for Ukraine in the parliaments of allied countries. However, Hetman fears this process could be quite complicated.“We see that everyone is afraid of the Russian Federation. First, they don’t want to be left without relatively cheap energy resources, and second, they continue to fear the Russians. Ukraine is fighting them, holding the defense for four years and is not afraid. They haven’t been able to capture Pokrovsk for almost a year and a half. Yet they tell everyone how powerful they are, and our friends in Europe believe it,” summarized the retired major.French President Emmanuel Macron said that 26 countries are ready to join security guarantees for Kyiv, including sending their contingents to Ukraine.