Roman Kostenko, Ukrainian lawmaker, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, and SBU Colonel, stated this on the Espreso TV channel."I don't know what guarantees there can be that we can believe in. I want to remind you that we had the Budapest Memorandum, which, no matter what anyone says, legally secured the greatest guarantees that could possibly exist from the strongest countries in the world - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France. And now, one guarantor is attacking us and seizing our territories, while another, let's say, forced us to sign an agreement on natural resources and now says, 'Go on, give them the territories.' So, what other guarantees can we talk about? Honestly, all the guarantees that will be signed will be written in water because no one knows how they will be implemented. As for NATO's Article 5, if we were to talk and negotiate now, I am sure that even those NATO members who are currently under this article, for instance, the Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. As of now, they are not confident that NATO's Article 5 will be used or will protect them in the event of aggression from the Russian Federation," he said.Roman Kostenko noted that Estonia, in particular, has more faith in NATO's Article 3."Let's just compare: the Budapest Memorandum stated, approximately, that the guarantor countries must protect Ukraine if nuclear or conventional weapons are used against it, and they must defend it with their armed forces. But Article 5 says that each country must do its utmost to help the country that has been attacked. That is, simply 'do its utmost.' For some, the utmost is to send their troops, according to Article 5, while for others, the utmost is to express outrage that a particular country is being attacked. I recently met with my partners and colleagues from Estonia, and they say: 'We have more faith in Article 3' of the NATO charter, which states that each country must itself do its utmost to prevent aggression against it," he noted.The MP emphasized that the only guarantor of Ukraine's independence is Ukraine itself."So, that's the situation with guarantees. Well, first of all, we have already gone and signed guarantees. It turns out that the guarantees we signed are now bad, and we need other guarantees, and now everyone is searching for them. I don't know what guarantees there can be, other than the placement of nuclear weapons on the territory of Ukraine. I don't believe in Article 5, and, of course, I'll repeat, the Budapest Memorandum has already shown us that we can be deceived and on what terms. If it involves surrendering territories, that's even more so. As for joining NATO, it is written in our Constitution; it is our course. The Constitution has a procedure for how it is amended, and it cannot simply be violated. It is not passed like a bill in one session; it requires several sessions, 300 votes, and there is a whole procedure. If so, it is not a short path to change. And the question is - who will vote during a war for us not to join NATO? You need to find 300 members of parliament. So these are difficult requirements. And they also require the participation of the parliament. A parliament that, we can note, is present at the victory table, but in the end, has to resolve certain issues. This is also a problem," added Roman Kostenko.