He emphasizes that the Ukrainian army must develop regardless of whether Ukraine joins NATO.The President commented on the imposition of sanctions by the West against the Kremlin in the event of an offensive by the Russian Federation on Ukraine / photo REUTERS

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky emphasizes that if Ukraine is not in NATO , then “we defend ourselves.”

As an UNIAN correspondent reports, he said this during a meeting with representatives of foreign media, which was broadcast on the Facebook page of the Office of the President of Ukraine .

Speaking about security guarantees, Zelensky said: “When we talk about NATO, we need to talk deeper about this issue. I know that this issue is not very pleasant to a few or some, let’s say, NATO members. But we want specifics. “We have to count. Therefore, NATO is security guarantees. This is the first question. And the second question is the level of our army.”

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He stressed that the Ukrainian army should develop regardless of whether Ukraine joins NATO.

“Despite the fact when we will be in NATO or we will not be in NATO – not everything depends on us, unfortunately – we are definitely developing our army. We must do this, we must protect ourselves. But we now understand for sure: if we are not in NATO, then we defend ourselves,” Zelensky stressed.

He added: “And when you defend yourself, when you are alone with a very difficult state, you ask: what are “after” sanctions, for whom are they addressed, what are they for? Do they concern Ukraine? Excuse me, unfortunately, No. I don’t know what will happen next… If so, if everyone says that tomorrow there will be a full-scale war, why do we need sanctions “later”? Therefore, we are talking about sanctions definitely not for our state. This indicates containment full-scale aggression against the countries of the European Union.But this cannot be done at the expense of our state.We have 15 thousand dead, and many countries of the world are discussing sanctions “after”.

The President expressed the opinion that it was “dishonest”.

“That is, tell me the reasons. We are not in NATO. Well, say that we are not in NATO. Say openly: we will never be there. And this is me to many members of the Alliance. Someone is talking about this, someone afraid to speak. Someone comes, we shake hands with each other. And someone says: “You know, if it were not for this state, we will definitely support you.” And someone says something else: “When everyone supports, we We also support. “Why should we talk about the future? We have risks in our present,” Zelensky said.

Russia’s ultimatum on Ukraine and NATO

As UNIAN reported, on December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a draft agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States on “security guarantees” and a draft agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and NATO member states. In particular, Russia suggests that NATO refuse to accept Ukraine into the Alliance, as well as “from any military activity on the territory of Ukraine.” The Russian Federation also offers the United States not to create military bases on the territory of the countries of the former USSR and not to accept these countries into NATO.

In this regard, on January 10, a dialogue on strategic stability between the US and Russia was held in Geneva, on January 12, a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, and on January 13, a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.

The United States and its allies gave Russia a written response to its “security proposals.”

(C)UNIAN 2022