Zelensky wants to know clear answer about prospects for Ukraine’s membership in NATO

KYIV. Jan 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky says that Ukraine, in view of the threat from Russia, should receive a clear answer in the near future on the prospects for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

“We want specifics, we need to have something that we can count on… Well, give us the reasons. Okay, we are not in NATO – okay, tell us that we are not in NATO. Tell it openly: we will never be there… Why do we need to talk about the future? We have risks here, in our present,” Zelensky said at a briefing with representatives of foreign media in Kyiv on Friday, answering a question of what Ukraine needs from the United States and what Ukraine does not receive in order to contain and resist Russia.

According to him, the issue of joining NATO can be used as preventive sanctions against Russia. “If we take the global issue facing us, the protection of human life, then we raise the issue of NATO … Of course, security guarantees: the desire is not that if there is a war, the armies of other countries will protect us – no, we believe that this is also there are preventive sanctions… What is NATO, what is it, war? These are sanctions. You say that we need to find some preventive sanctions – NATO is one of those sanctions. Or, if it is not NATO, please show security guarantees,” the President of Ukraine said.

“When we will be in NATO now does not depend on Ukraine, unfortunately,” Zelensky said.