Zelensky: “Ukraine Needs “Honesty” In Ties With NATO”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that kyiv wants “honesty” in its relations with NATO, days before a crucial Atlantic Alliance summit in Lithuania.

“We need honesty in our relations,” Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Prague alongside Czech President Petr Pavel.

It is time to demonstrate “the courage and the strength of this alliance”, he added. “We need that motivation,” he insisted.

The Allies are still seeking a common line on the security guarantees they are ready to grant to kyiv as well as on the invitation to Ukraine to eventually join NATO.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would like to receive an “invitation” to join NATO at the Alliance summit, scheduled for next week in Lithuania.

At the Vilnius summit, NATO wants to hold the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine council with Volodymyr Zelensky.

“clear signal”

Speaking in Prague, Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine to receive a “clear signal” that it would join NATO. He also felt that the words ensuring that the doors were open to Ukraine were not “enough”.

“Ukraine has not received an invitation in one form or another,” Zelensky said. “I think it is necessary to demonstrate the strength and unity of the Alliance,” he added.

The Ukrainian president said he understood that it could be difficult to obtain the support of all NATO members because some are “afraid of Russia”.

Regarding the Ukrainian counter-offensive, he admitted that it was “not fast” but that troops from kyiv were advancing.

“The offense is not fast, that’s a fact,” he admitted. “But nevertheless, we are advancing, we are not retreating, like the Russians,” the Ukrainian president told reporters in Prague, alongside his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel. “We now have the initiative.”

Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Prague on Thursday evening, after a visit to Bulgaria to discuss NATO membership and to plead for an acceleration of the delivery of weapons by this major ammunition-producing country, in the midst of the Kiev counter-offensive .

He is expected in Istanbul on Friday where he is to meet Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.