Speaking to representatives of the United Kingdom-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) today, Zelenskyy said that we heard for years about the allegedly open doors of NATO, but we have already heard that we won’t be able to join.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on March 15 said that his war-torn country was prepared to accept security guarantees that stop short of its long-term objective of the NATO alliance membership, which Russia opposes.
Zelenskyy said that the country realises that it cannot join the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO).
“If we cannot enter through open doors, then we must cooperate with the associations with which we can, which will help us, protect us … and have separate guarantees,” he added.
He further said that it’s the truth we must recognise, and I’m glad that our people are starting to realise that and count on themselves and our partners who are helping us.
One of Zelenskiy’s top aides said the war would be over by May, or even end within weeks, as Russia had run out of fresh troops.
“We are at a fork in the road now,” Oleksiy Arestovich said in a video. He said he expected either a peace deal within one or two weeks or another Russian attempt with new reinforcements, which could prolong the conflict for another month.
“I think that no later than in May, early May, we should have a peace agreement, maybe much earlier: we will see,” Arestovich said.
In Rivne in western Ukraine, officials said 19 people had been killed in a Russian airstrike on a TV tower. If confirmed it would be the worst attack on a civilian target so far in the northwest where Russian ground troops have yet to tread.
Peace talks have focused so far on local ceasefires to let civilians evacuate and bring aid to surrounding cities.
The worst hit is the southeastern port of Mariupol, where hundreds have been killed since Russia laid siege in the war’s first week. Russian troops let the first column of cars leave Mariupol on Monday but the attempt to bring in aid convoys have failed for 10 straight days. Ukrainian officials said they would try again.
While Russia has failed to seize any cities in the north and east, it has had more success in the south, where Moscow said on Tuesday it now controlled the entire Kherson region.