Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelenskiy signing his country’s application for accelerated accession to NATO Russia President Vladimir Putin has said they will not hold any negotiations with Moscow as long as he is in office.
In his statement, Zelenskiy said, “Ukraine is a de facto part of NATO. Today, Ukraine is applying to NATO to make it legally binding. We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO.”
“Ukraine will not hold any negotiations with the Russian Federation as long as Putin is President of Russia,” Zelensky added.
“RUSSIA WOULD NOT STOP”
Stating that Russia started a war against Ukraine on February 24, Zelenskiy said, “If we had not stopped Russia, it would not have stopped at our borders. Other states would have been under attack.” said.
Zelenkiy said that they are determined to take back the Ukrainian lands. “The enemy of not only Ukraine, but also of life, humanity, law and truth, all the lands of our country will be rid of this enemy. Russia already knows this. It feels our strength.” used the phrase.
“That’s why he’s in a hurry. He’s organizing this farce with an annexation attempt. He’s trying to steal something that doesn’t belong to him. He wants to rewrite history and redraw the borders with murders, torture, blackmail and lies. Ukraine won’t let that happen,” Zelenkiy said. he said.
SWEDEN AND FINLAND ALSO APPLIED TO NATO
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been complaining about the expansion of NATO for a long time, cited this complaint as the reason for the war he started against Ukraine.
After Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, non-NATO members Sweden and Finland also applied for NATO membership. Previously, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Georgia also announced that they wanted to become NATO members, but they have not been able to become members until now. Although it was agreed that Georgia and Ukraine would become NATO members in the future, no date was given, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was invited to be included in the Membership Action Plan in 2010.
HOW IS THE PROCESS IN NATO?
In order for NATO to accept new members, various conditions must be fulfilled and legal processes must be completed. Membership applications of both countries must be voted on in the parliaments of all NATO member states. Turkey had also announced that they would review the process of Sweden and Finland, and then make a decision, due to concerns about the two countries’ stance on terrorism.
Currently, there are 30 countries that are members of NATO. The USA, Belgium, United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Italy, Iceland, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway and Portugal became the first members of NATO in 1949. Turkey and Greece in 1952, Germany in 1955, Spain in 1982, Czechia, Hungary and Poland in 1999, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro became a NATO member in 2017.
The last country to join NATO was North Macedonia in 2020. If Sweden, Finland and Ukraine also become full members of NATO, the number of member states will rise to 33.
PUTIN’S EXPLANATION OF THE DECISION ON THE Annexation
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the document on the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to Russian territory.
In his statement, Putin said, “These people voted for the common future, everyone living in those regions, people who left in 91, chose again for our national unity. After the revolution, there were borders that divided us. Despite the referendum in 91, they tore our great country apart, and we made this as if it were a fact. “It doesn’t matter anymore. The Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore, and today’s Russia doesn’t need it. No decision is more important than the choice of millions. They wanted to return to their true, historical homeland. We want the West to hear me; The people in these four regions are now ours.” We have called on the Kyiv regime to put aside the hostility as soon as possible. We will not discuss Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. And the authorities here should see this decision, only in this way can we reach a peaceful solution. They do not respect the choice of people’s free will, on freedom of expression they have no power to speak. Western elites ignore basic human rights They don’t come, they divide the world in two. He will not be able to break the unity of Ukraine and the Western Russian Federation. Today’s Russian phobia is in many ways because we did not colonize our own nation. We were able to do this because we were able to establish a strong centralized state. They took our world, our money, our power, and now we have started to compensate for this damage somehow. The people of Donetsk, the West has been saying for years that we will bring democracy there, but this is the hypocrisy of the West.”
* Images of the news are provided by the Associated Press.