Ukraine demands security guarantees from NATO

President Zelensky has stated that the US and its allies must provide “legal” assurances that Ukraine is safe, even though it is not a member of NATO.

Even though the West cannot offer Kyiv NATO membership, Ukrainian (Ukraine) President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the country must be made “fully safe.” 

“Our allies should work out collective security assurances for Ukraine if they are not willing to take Ukraine into NATO… because Russia does not want Ukraine to be in NATO,” Zelensky told Reuters and CNN on Tuesday, amid Russia’s escalating invasion. 

These Security guarantees are required to maintain “our territorial integrity, that our borders are preserved, that we have special relationships with all of our neighbors, and that we are fully safe,” he explained. 

The countries that would become “the guarantors who guarantee us security,” according to Zelensky, should “legally” grant such assurances to Kyiv. 

According to Reuters, the Ukrainian leader also commended the West for supplying weapons to Kyiv and imposing more sanctions on Moscow. He spoke from what Reuters described as “a strongly guarded government compound” in the country’s capital. 

He did, however, call on the United States and its allies to go farther, including implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Despite noting that US President Joe Biden had previously warned him that now was not the time to introduce such a measure, Zelensky repeated his plea for airspace closure over his country. 

“It’s not about dragging NATO members into a war.” The truth is that everyone has been drawn into a war for a long time, and not by Ukraine, but by Russia,” he asserted.  

Last year, Moscow requested written assurances from Washington that NATO would not expand into Ukraine or Georgia, a potential that Moscow viewed as a grave threat. It also asked the military alliance led by the United States to reduce its provocative military exercises near Russia’s borders. On the other hand, the US has refused to meet Russia’s requests.

Edited By- Kiran Maharana

Published By- Pawan Rajput