You're reading: Poroshenko: Ukraine will get another $1 billion in financial guarantees from US

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama have reached an agreement that the U.S. will provide Ukraine with financial guarantees worth $1 billion.

‘We agreed with Barack Obama that Ukraine will receive $1 billion in financial guarantees [from the United States],’ Poroshenko said on Twitter in the early hours of Sept. 19.

In the meantime, according to the Western media, the U.S. has declined to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine and grant it the status of ‘a major ally outside of NATO.’

Poroshenko had asked the U.S. Congress to grant Ukraine special partner status in NATO that does not envisage NATO membership.

‘I am calling on the U.S. to grant Ukraine special status reflecting the level of its interaction with a country that is not a NATO member,’ he said in the U.S. Congress on Thursday.

Poroshenko reiterated that the Ukrainian military ‘need more political support of the whole world and they need more weapons, both lethal and non-lethal.’

‘You can’t win a war with sheets. We can’t maintain peace with sheets,’ Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko specified that Ukraine’s purpose is not to win a war, but maintain peace, and ‘in order to maintain peace we need to be strong.’ ‘We have no doubt that we will be strong thanks to you,’ Poroshenko told the U.S. Congress.

Poroshenko also spoke about the possibility of a new ‘cold war’ and ‘a new war in Europe, where it until recently seemed impossible, but is now quite real.’ However, he called on the world not to take it as something inevitable, but unite to respond effectively to these challenges.

The status of ‘special ally outside of NATO’ was introduced by U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in 1989. Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan and South Korea have this status. This status makes it easier for the U.S. to provide military assistance and removes restrictions on the supply of weapons.

According to earlier reports, a bill under which the status of special ally outside of NATO may be granted to Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine was submitted to the U.S. Congress in 2014.

However, U.S. President Barack Obama has declined Poroshenko’s requests.