Zelenskyy: if we are offered NATO membership tomorrow, we will join. But this won’t happen

Evropeiska Pravda – Tuesday, 5 April 2022, 11:20

Ukraine is prepared to join NATO despite the threats from the Russian Federation, but the lack of support from Alliance countries forces the country to search for other security guarantees.

Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, in an interview for Ukrainian journalists

Details: President Zelenskyy stressed that joining a security alliance is important for Ukraine.

"NATO membership? We are prepared to join as soon as tomorrow. Even if [not joining NATO] is one of Russia’s conditions. We are not hiding this," Zelenskyy said.

"I told this to the Secretary General of NATO and to other leaders who have a say over Ukraine’s NATO membership. Too many of our people have already died for us to be afraid to say what we think," he added.

According to the President, Ukraine is prepared to join the Alliance as early as "tomorrow," but unfortunately, "it won’t happen."

"If tomorrow we are offered NATO membership – seriously, without playing with our lives again – we will join. But it won’t happen, unfortunately, and unfortunately it hasn’t already happened. So we will build our own security guarantees which will be able to defend us," the President said.

Zelenskyy also said that negotiations with regard to security guarantees are ongoing with a number of countries, but no agreements have been finalised yet, just as there is still no list of countries and the promises they are prepared to make.

According to Zelenskyy, different countries are prepared to offer different security guarantees.