Ukraine is prepared to drop its bid to join NATO in exchange for legally binding security guarantees, President Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of a key Berlin peace summit, according to media reports.
Zelensky is attending the latest round of high-stakes talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders in Berlin on Sunday and Monday. Ahead of the meeting, he appeared to drop his country’s bid for NATO membership – which was enshrined in the constitution in 2019, according to corresponding reports by Reuters and the Financial Times.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelenskyy said, according to the reports.
Rather than the threat of NATO retaliation, Zelensky is betting on individual countries’ support to protect his country.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said. The guarantees should be legally binding, he added.
He said the shift constituted a “compromise from our part” ahead of talks he described as “important”.
Russia previously demanded Ukraine renounce its ambition to join the military alliance and surrender the contested Donbas region to the Kremlin without a fight.
Kyiv, on the other hand, is hoping to freeze the frontline.
“The fairest possible option is to ‘stay where we are’. This is true because it is a ceasefire… I know that Russia does not view this positively, and I would like the Americans to support us on this issue,” Zelensky told reporters.
(mk)