WASHINGTON, United States — President
Volodymyr Zelensky said he is no longer
pressing for NATO membership for Ukraine, a delicate issue that was one of
Russia’s stated reasons for invading its pro-Western neighbor.
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In another apparent
nod aimed at placating
Moscow, Zelensky said he is open to “compromise” on the
status of two breakaway pro-Russian territories that President Vladimir Putin
recognized as independent just before unleashing 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,” Zelensky said in an interview aired Monday night
on ABC News.
“The alliance is
afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia,” the president
added.
Referring to
NATO membership, Zelensky said through an interpreter that he does not want to be
president of a “country which is begging something on its knees.”
Russia has said it
does not want neighboring Ukraine to join NATO, the transatlantic alliance
created at the start of the
Cold War to protect Europe from the Soviet Union.
In more recent
years the alliance has expanded further and further east to take in former
Soviet bloc countries, infuriating the Kremlin.
Russia sees NATO
enlargement as a threat, as it does the military posture of these new Western
allies on its doorstep.
Shortly before he
shocked the world by ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin recognized as
independent two separatist pro-Russian “republics” in eastern Ukraine — Donetsk
and Lugansk — that have been at war with
Kyiv since 2014.
Putin now wants
Ukraine, too, to recognize them as sovereign and independent.
When ABC asked him
about this Russian demand, Zelensky said he was open to dialogue.
“I’m talking about
security guarantees,” he said.
He said these two
regions “have not been recognized by anyone but Russia, these pseudo republics.
But we can discuss and find the compromise on how these territories will live
on.”
“What is important
to me is how the people in those territories are going to live who want to be
part of Ukraine, who in
Ukraine will say that they want to have them in,”
Zelensky said.
“So the question is
more difficult than simply acknowledging them,” the president said.
“This is another ultimatum and we are not prepared for
ultimatums. What needs to be done is for President
Putin to start talking,
start the dialogue instead of living in the informational bubble without
oxygen.”
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