KYIV, March 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country should accept that it will not become a member of the US-led NATO military alliance, a key Russian concern it used to justify its invasion.
“Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand that. We have heard for years that the doors were open, but we also heard that we could not join. It’s a truth and it must be recognised,” Zelensky said during a video conference with military officials.
His statement, while making no firm commitments, will be seen as further opening the door to some kind of peace deal between Ukraine and Russia after negotiators hailed ‘substantial’ progress at the weekend – without giving any idea what such a deal would look like.
Ahead of the invasion, Putin had been demanding guarantees that Ukraine would never be admitted to NATO along with the removal of all the alliance’s troops and weapons from ex-Soviet countries. After being rebuffed by Kyiv, Washington and NATO he launched his ‘special military operation’ to ‘demilitarise’ and ‘de-Nazify’ the country.
Russian negotiators have softened their stance a little since then, saying they want Ukraine to declare neutrality, disarm, recognise Crimea as part of Russia and recognise the whole of the Donbass as independent. Ukraine has been demanding a ceasefire and the immediate withdrawal of all Russian forces. Talks have been ongoing this week and Moscow has made no mention of wider demands on NATO in recent days.
Zelensky again urged Western allies to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine and deplored NATO’s refusal to do so thus far, adding that the dire situation in his country has ‘allowed us to see who our true friends are these past 20 days’.
Speaking to the Canadian Parliament, Zelensky said: ‘Can you imagine calling other friendly nations, and asking them ‘please close the sky, close the airspace, stop the bombing’. And in turn they express their deep concerns about the situation.
‘We talk to our partners and they say ‘please hold on a little longer’,’ Zelensky said. Military analysts have said a no-fly zone is unlikely because the U.S. and its allies believe it could escalate the war into a nuclear confrontation.
Meanwhile, talks aimed at ending Russia’s military attack on Ukraine face ‘fundamental contradictions’, while compromise is possible, a member of the Ukrainian delegation and presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Tuesday.
‘We’ll continue tomorrow. A very difficult and viscous negotiation process. There are fundamental contradictions. But there is certainly room for compromise,’ Podolyak tweeted after talks resumed earlier in the day, with both sides having signalled progress. He said the talks will continue Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, another aide to Zelenskyy, Ihor Zhovkva, struck a more optimistic note, saying that the negotiations had become ‘more constructive’ and that Russia had softened its stand by no longer airing its demands that Ukraine surrender.
Any deal between Moscow and Kyiv would face a myriad of difficulties, including whether troops would honour a ceasefire and whether Russia could be trusted to keep its end of the bargain. But both sides appear to be warming to the idea of a ceasefire, which would allow Ukraine to get badly-needed humanitarian aid into cities, some of which have now been under siege for weeks.
The hardest-hit is the Black Sea port city of Mariupol, which has been without water, food or electricity since March 1. Conditions continue to deteriorate there, but some evacuations have taken place in recent days – with 4,000 civilian vehicles leaving the city today along a ‘humanitarian corridor’.
A senior Ukrainian official said about 20,000 people have managed to leave the besieged port city. It comes after a few dozen vehicles managed to leave yesterday.
But conditions in other cities continue to worsen. Shortly before Zelensky spoke, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko put a three-day curfew in place in the capital – barring civilians from going outside and warning them to prepare for heavy bombardment by Putin’s men.
‘Today is a difficult and dangerous moment,’ Klitschko said in a statement on Telegram. ‘This is why I ask all Kyivites to get prepared to stay at home for two days, or if the sirens go off, in the shelters.’
Zelenskyy later said Russian air strikes hit four multi-story buildings in the city and killed dozens of people. The shelling ignited a huge fire in a 15-story apartment building and spurred a frantic rescue effort. Senior UK defence sources last night indicated that Russian forces may only be able to sustain full fighting capacity for another ‘ten to 14’ days after which Putin’s men will struggle to hold the ground they have already captured from Ukrainian troops.
UK defence sources say that Kyiv has Moscow ‘on the run’ and the Russian army could be just two weeks from ‘culmination point’ – after which ‘the strength of Ukraine’s resistance should become greater than Russia’s attacking force.’ Advances across Ukraine have already stopped as Moscow’s manpower runs short.
Putin’s stuttering invasion has forced even his close allies to admit, publicly, that things are not going to plan.
Russian National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov – once in charge of Putin’s personal security – admitted Tuesday that ‘not everything is going as fast as we would like’. But he still insisted Russia would achieve victory ‘step by step’.
The Kremlin also said it may still opt to take control of large cities in Ukraine, despite false claims the purpose of its ‘special military operation’ is to ‘liberate’ the country.
But, as Russia’s invasion falters, its methods become more brutal – with cities increasingly coming under indiscriminate rocket fire. Kyiv, the capital, suffered another round of bombing on Tuesday morning as apartment blocks were set on fire by early-hours strikes.
Kharkiv came under attack again on Tuesday, with the city’s mayor saying that more than 600 buildings have been destroyed there since the start of Russia’s invasion.
‘Schools, nurseries, hospitals, clinics have been destroyed,’ said Mayor Ihor Terekhov in a televised interview on Tuesday. ‘The Russian army is constantly shelling (us) from the ground and the air.’
Ukraine’s military said four Russian helicopters, a jet, and a cruise missile were shot down by its forces which remained in control of all major cities – including the badly-hit southern port of Mariupol.
Meanwhile Zelensky, speaking to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and representatives from Baltic and northern European countries via video conference today, said Vladimir Putin’s invasion had undermined the European security infrastructure by invading a sovereign country and expressed his frustration that Ukraine had not been allowed to join NATO.
Speaking through an interpreter he said the alliance’s ‘open doors’ policy had not worked for Ukraine. ‘Of course Ukraine is not a Nato member, we understand that.’ he said. ‘We have heard for many years about the open doors, but we also heard that we can’t enter those doors. This is the truth and we have simply to accept it as it is.’
Zelensky requested military supplies, which he said were being rapidly used up. ‘The amount that we are getting per week is used, usually by us within 20 hours,’ he said. ‘You know the kind of weapons we need, everyone knows.’
He also called for a full trade embargo, warning that Western sanctions ‘are not enough’ to end Russian aggression, and said Moscow’s navy vessels should be barred from ports around the world and all Russian banks excluded from the Swift financial messaging system.
‘We have to acknowledge Russia as a rogue state and there has to be a trade embargo with Russia. This is something that we need and you need as well, just like the rest of the world, to make sure there is peace in Europe and Ukraine,’ he said.
Zelensky also criticised firms which continued doing business with Russia warning that they ‘don’t care about the 97 kids who were killed so far’ and condemning international leaders for being ‘silent’ as nuclear power plants are captured and shelled. — NNN-AGENCIES
