Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that his country needs more weapons and security guarantees from NATO, before possible negotiations with Russia to end the invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022.
Zelenski spoke after a meeting with the new head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kalas, and the new president of the European Council, Antonia Košta, who were visiting Kyiv on the first day of their mandate.
Tensions between Moscow and the West are at their highest after the Ukrainian attack by American and British missiles on Russian soil and the Russian firing of an experimental hypersonic missile and Russian nuclear threats.
Zelensky said that his country "needs weapons, including a good or sufficient number of long-range missiles of various types."
"The call for Ukraine to join NATO is necessary for our survival," the Ukrainian president added, while Moscow claims it launched the invasion to prevent a rapprochement between Kiev and the Atlantic alliance.
"Only when we have all these elements and are strong, we will have to establish ... the agenda of the meeting with the killers," Zelensky said.
A few hours earlier, the President of the European Council, Antonio Košta, said that his visit to Kyiv was a clear message.
"We stand by Ukraine and continue to give it full support," Košta told reporters.
The new European Union team wants to demonstrate strong support for Ukraine at a time when its forces are withdrawing from the front and when the imminent arrival of Donald Trump in the White House raises fears of the end of American aid in Kiev.
Kaja Kalas, for her part, said that "the strongest security guarantee (for Ukraine) is NATO membership".
Western diplomats, however, believe that there is little chance that the Alliance will approve the membership status of Ukraine in the near future, given the opposition of a large number of countries that fear that this would drag them directly into a war with Russia.
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