Ukraine will sign an accelerated application for NATO membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday, minutes after Russia formalized the annexation of four regions of the country. The head of state also hammered home that he will not negotiate as long as Vladimir Putin is in power.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Friday that he will not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, shortly after the Russian leader asked Ukraine to lay down its arms. “Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. We will negotiate with the new president,” he said, in an online video. “We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s candidacy for accelerated NATO membership,” he also said.
Putin wants to save the Russian-speaking populations from an alleged “genocide”
A little earlier during a ceremony in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin had formalized the annexation of regions of Ukraine that the Russian army partially controls and while he is facing a Ukrainian counter-offensive. “We call on the kyiv regime to immediately cease firing, all hostilities and return to the negotiating table,” said Vladimir Putin, who stormed Ukraine on February 24.
To justify the offensive, the Russian president has repeatedly affirmed that he must save the Russian-speaking populations from an alleged “genocide”, and prevent NATO from making Ukraine a bridgehead in order to then attack the Russia. Faced with the failures of his army in early September, he ordered a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists.