British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has said that Ukraine is not joining NATO “any time soon,” following President Volodymyr Zelensky’s acknowledgement that Ukraine would not become part of the Western military alliance, the Associated Press reports.
The PUNCH reported, on Monday, that the Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Ukraine, Ihor Ivanovych Zhovkva, has hinted that Ukraine is willing to maintain a neutral status.
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has long expressed worries over Ukraine’s NATO aspirations as a threat to Russia, something the alliance denies.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said Tuesday that Ukraine realised it could not join NATO, his most explicit acknowledgment that the goal, enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution, was unlikely to be met, the AP reports.
This came as Russia and Ukraine held a new round of talks, with Zelensky saying, on Wednesday, that Russian demands were becoming “more realistic,” according to the AP.
On Wednesday, Johnson said “the reality of the position” is that “there is no way Ukraine is going to join NATO any time soon.” But he said the decision had to be for Ukraine to make.
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