KIEV, 17 Feb - RIA Novosti. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev should receive a guarantee system that is not inferior to that offered to NATO countries, as the process of joining the alliance is delayed.
"NATO is, in fact, the only existing security alliance that Ukraine could join today. There is an open door position for us there. But there is a long distance on this path – years and months, especially if there is an escalation. Going this way, we must get a system of guarantees. And at least theoretically, it should not be inferior to the system that is offered to NATO countries. We are talking about this firmly. For us today, this is the only alternative to the current situation when we protect ourselves. Everything else is stories, populist statements," Zelensky said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from Western partners legal guarantees against further expansion of NATO to the east, from joining the bloc of Ukraine and from the creation of military bases in post-Soviet countries. The proposals also contain a clause on the non-deployment of NATO strike weapons near the borders of Russia and the withdrawal of alliance forces in Eastern Europe to the positions of 1997.
