Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that his nation would not plan to seek NATO membership, a delicate topic that was one of Russia’s claimed reasons for invading its pro-Western neighbour.
In another apparent gesture to Moscow, Zelenskyy stated that he is willing to “compromise” on the status of two breakaway pro-Russian areas that President Vladimir Putin acknowledged as independent immediately before launching the invasion on February 24.
“I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that … NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Monday night on ABC News.
“The alliance is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia,” the president added. In reference to NATO membership, Zelenskyy stated via a translator that he does not want to be president of a “country that is begging something on its knees.”
Russia has stated its opposition to neighbouring Ukraine joining NATO, the transatlantic alliance formed at the outset of the Cold War to safeguard Europe from the Soviet Union. In recent years, the alliance has grown further east to include former Soviet bloc nations, infuriating the Kremlin.
Russia considers NATO enlargement as a danger, as does the military posture of these new Western partners on its doorstep.
Shortly before shocking the world by ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin recognized as autonomous two rebel pro-Russian “republics” in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk, and Lugansk, which had been at odds with Kyiv since 2014. Putin now wants Ukraine to acknowledge its sovereignty and independence as well.
