Zelensky urges West to do more on sanctions and military aid
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GB News host, Dan Wootton questioned Ms Sotnyk, a political advisor for Ukraine over the precise areas where Ukraine may be open to compromise in order to bring a swift end to this conflict. In a message to military officials on Tuesday, President Zelensky addressed the concession of NATO membership while criticising NATO’s indecisiveness over Ukraine’s eligibility for membership.
Speaking to Mr Wootton, Ms Sotnyk said: “First of all I need you to understand and realise Putin’s logic.
“It is not just a NATO issue that Putin really wants to get off the table.
“No, he started war with Ukraine when we had been a neutral country according to our constitution, he annexed Crimea and then he invaded Donbas.
“War started not because of NATO status or not because of our aspirations to NATO. War started because Putin wanted to start it.”
The GB News host expressed his disdain for Russia’s actions saying that it “makes me feel physically sick” and added: “I’m trying to find out exactly where Ukraine is prepared to compromise.
“It felt like he opened up the door to compromise NATO membership today, what about Donetsk and Luhansk?
“Are you potentially prepared to negotiate at all on the sovereignty of those two break-away areas?”
Political commentators have previously suggested that the negotiations about this conflict and its resolution would likely include Ukraine surrendering its NATO membership and the break-away territories of Dontsk and Luhansk.
Ms Sotnyk refused to discuss the two regions, but expressed her anger at the notion of surrendering anything to Russia which would demonstrate weakness.
She criticised those who don’t view compromise of Ukrainian territory as equivalent to surrender and stated that those who believe it would pacify Putin are making a mistake.
Ms Sotnyk said: “It was a mistake for many countries for the last ten years, they’ve been looking for this peaceful resolution with the guy that doesn’t want any peace.
“There is only one way to stop Putin, we need to stop him in Ukraine, we need to ruin his regime, we need to demilitarise Russia, and that would be the only guarantee for the whole of Europe, for the whole world for the future.
Speaking on removing Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance, she described how in the middle of this conflict “it sounds fantastic” but noted that after the show of force from the Ukrainian army during this fight, a concession now would demonstrate “that we can’t fight with him.”
The political advisor added that Ukrainian allies should further their “support with military equipment, support with the no-fly zone and other important instruments.”
She added that with this extra aid “we can defeat him.”
In a video message to military officials of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “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.”
Speaking to ABC News a week ago, the Ukrainian President admitted that he had “cooled down” on his nation’s desire to join NATO “long ago”.
He said that this loss of hope came “after we understood that NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine.”
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Throughout the war, Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to the alliance for aid such as a no-fly zone, which has been repeatedly denied due to NATO being a defensive force and the move would place the alliance in direct conflict with Russia.
Concerns have flared that NATO involvement in a non-NATO state would trigger World War Three and potentially nuclear warfare.
Article 5 of NATO’s treaty states that an attack on one member is equivalent to an attack on all 30 members of the alliance and so would trigger a united response.
President Putin escalated the threat of war three weeks ago when the Ukrainian President refused to be bullied into giving up Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership.
Though this concession by Ukraine is hoped to bring about positive actions in terms of diplomatic discussions about the conflict, Russia has also stated that they want to see the “denazification” and demilitarisation of Ukraine.
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