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The issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO is again on the agenda of the international community amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, residents of many European states support Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance.
This was reported by the corespondents of UA.
In response to the question “Which country should accept EU/NATO membership?” citizens of such NATO-countries as the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France ranks Ukraine first among 11 candidates.
Marko Michelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament said that 70 percent of Ukrainians support this membership.
“More than 70% of Ukrainians support their country’s membership in the EU and more than 60% support NATO membership. This is because of the ongoing Russian aggression. Patriotic feelings are high among Ukrainians,” Marko Michelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament writes on Twitter.
Russia has demanded NATO pull back troops and weapons from Eastern Europe and bar Ukraine’s membership. Russia has forced the U.S.-led defense alliance and the 57-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to negotiate over regional security and ask NATO to clarify whether it intends to implement key security commitments.
“Today, through the Foreign Ministry, we are sending an official request to our colleagues in the Alliance and the OSCE, urging them to explain how they intend to implement (their) commitment not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others,” Sergey Lavrov Minister of Foreign affairs of Russian Federation says.
NATO has no plans to deploy combat troops to non-NATO member Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg emphasised the limits of NATO’s partnership with Ukraine, stating that the security guarantees that an attack on one ally will trigger a response from the whole alliance does not apply to Ukraine, since it is not a NATO ally.
“We have no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine. NATO allies have trainers there, we help them from NATO with building capacity, modernising their defences including their cyber defences, NATO allies also provide equipment, defensive weapons, like the UK has now provided, for instance, anti-tank weapons. So, we do a lot of stuff to help Ukraine strengthen its ability, capability to defend itself, but again Ukraine is not a NATO ally,” Jens Stoltenberg NATO Secretary-General says.
Moscow continues to insist that Ukraine should not join NATO under any circumstances, as this would “undermine relations between Russia and the West”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine is not ready for membership at all.
According to the Minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, it is very important to host international top officials. So Kyiv became the center of diplomacy, and top officials – became mediators who can speak to Russia.
“To replace shuttle diplomacy, we actually invented network diplomacy based in Kyiv. Its principle is that our partners closely coordinate their positions with Ukraine before and after all contacts after negotiations with the Russian side. After that, they each work in their own way with Russia. Thus, Russia is under constant pressure to motivate them to behave more constructively,” Dmytro Kuleba Minister of Foreign affairs of Ukraine says.
To speak with those like Putin is not a mistake, says Ben Wallace, British Defense Secretary, hoped that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak with the Russian president. Johnson’s visit to Ukraine is expected this week.
Read also: Timing of Ukraine’s accession to NATO remains open – Stoltenberg
