Picture : Twitter / ANI
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he was prepared to discuss a commitment from Ukraine not to seek North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) membership in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine’s security.
As per ANI report, Reiterating his stance of not surrendering, Zelenskyy said, “Let’s say they demand to get Kharkiv, or Mariupol, or Kyiv. People in these cities won’t let them do it. The only way they can seize the cities is to kill everyone, and take the empty city.”
Speaking on the NATO membership, Zelenskyy said, “NATO should either say now that they are accepting us, or openly say they are not accepting us because they are afraid of Russia — which is true.”
“And then we need to calm down and say — ok, there are NATO member countries that can provide us security guarantees without a membership in NATO,” he added according to the media outlet.
“That’s where the compromise exists. That’s where the end of the war is,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said that there cannot be any ‘denazification’ in the agreement with Russia, reported Ukraine-based media outlet, The Kyiv Independent.
“When a country that is treading in the footsteps of the Nazi is accusing us of being Nazi — we can’t accept that,” the media outlet quoted him as saying during an interview to Suspilne, a Ukrainian public broadcaster.
Notably, Zelenskyy on Sunday had said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if his country would have been a member of the NATO
“If we were a NATO member, a war wouldn’t have started. I’d like to receive security guarantees for my country, for my people. If NATO members are ready to see us in the alliance, then do it immediately because people are dying on a daily basis,” CNN quoted Zelenskyy as saying during an exclusive interview.
Meanwhile, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows damage from Moscow military strikes across Irpin, northwest of Kyiv in Ukraine.
