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Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Nowayhaha on March 05, 2022, 08:44:41 AM
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https://www.rt.com/russia/551257-zelensky-ukraine-nato-weakness/
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at the NATO alliance on Friday, berating the block for its refusal to establish a no-fly zone over the country amid the ongoing Russian offensive that hit Ukraine last week.
“NATO knowingly approved the decision not to close the skies over Ukraine. We believe that the NATO countries themselves have created a narrative that the alleged closing of the sky over Ukraine will provoke direct Russian aggression against NATO,” Zelensky said in a videotaped address, telling the US-led bloc that “people will die because of you” in the country.
He also berated a general lack of aid from the alliance, stating that it only managed to authorize a small fuel delivery for the country. While Ukraine has been recognized as a special “partner” of the alliance, NATO has repeatedly warned Kiev that it would not go into a war with Russia over Ukraine.
“All that the alliance could do today was to allocate some 50 tons of diesel fuel for Ukraine through its procurement system,” Zelensky said, issuing a new thinly-veiled nuclear threat.
READ MORE: NATO talks options but sees no place for own troops in Ukraine
“Probably, it’s for us so that we can burn the Budapest Memorandum. To make it burn better. But for us it has already burned down in the fire of the Russian troops,” he added, referring to the 1994 document, under which Kiev surrendered its nuclear arsenal inherited from the Soviet Union.
A similar statement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who said the ongoing conflict had exposed NATO’s “weakness.”
“Before the war, Ukrainian people believed that NATO was strong, while the EU was weak and indecisive. And after the war began, the people saw that the opposite was true,” Kuleba told the 1+1 TV channel.
This is a weakness which the alliance will, unfortunately, pay for in the future. And now Ukrainians will suffer thanks to it.
The top Ukrainian diplomat also claimed that the EU “gave us a candidate status and prospects of membership, while NATO could not decide on anything.” In reality, however, Ukraine has not been given a EU candidate status, as a country needs to meet various requirements before attaining it, with the EU Parliament only passing a non-binding resolution welcoming Kiev’s membership bid
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier expressed his disappointment with NATO failing to engage more in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, particularly for the alliance's reluctance to declare a no-fly zone over the country.
Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to provoke a conflict between Russia and NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
According to Lavrov, by expressing his disappointment with the bloc's refusal to intervene, Zelensky is demonstrating his desire to drag NATO into the conflict.
"The constant embittered statements by Mr Zelensky do not add optimism", Lavrov noted. "He was a little rude to his curators, accusing them of inaction. And I have a question: if he was so upset that NATO did not stand up for him, as he hoped, then he still hoped for a settlement of the conflict by involving NATO in this whole story, and not through negotiations ... It turns out that he still wants to provoke a conflict".
The date for the next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has not been settled yet, the Russian foreign minister said, pointing at the reluctance of the Ukrainian side to engage.
"The situation looks rather strange, it seems that everyone is interested in reaching an early agreement on how to fully resolve everything. And on the other hand, it would seem that the most interested side, the Ukrainian side, constantly comes up with pretexts to postpone the start of the next meeting", Lavrov said.
The top Russian diplomat suggested that Zelensky's "militaristic frenzy" indicates that he does not need the talks with Moscow. Still, Lavrov said Russia hopes that Zelensky's mood changes.
The negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are taking place in Belarus, with the first round occurring on 28 February, followed by a second meeting on 3 March. During the second round, the parties reached an understanding on the joint provision of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, along with the delivery of food and medicine. The Ukrainian side said that a third round of talks is expected to kick off next week.
NATO previously said that it does not consider itself a part of the conflict, stressing that the alliance will not deploy troops in Ukraine or move planes into its airspace. However, NATO continues to supply weapons to Ukraine, and said it will increase these supplies.