Ukraine should have held referendum on NATO before enshrining it in Constitution: Zelensky

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that his country should have held a referendum on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership before making it a priority in the country's Constitution. He also stated that France and Germany should do more to support Ukraine in joining the alliance. "I believe that Paris and Berlin should do more to bring Kyiv closer to joining NATO. They also need to be interested in this issue and be certain about it," Zelensky told reporters, as per Sputnik news agency.   

According to Zelensky, Russia is not the only country that opposes Ukraine's NATO ambitions, as several other European countries also oppose it. Russia has repeatedly demanded that NATO halts its "mindless" eastward expansion, which took place despite promises made in the 1980s and 1990s. To defuse the recent escalation in Ukraine, Moscow presented security guarantee proposals to NATO and the US in December, urging the bloc to halt its expansion near Russia's borders. 

Among several other terms, it also called for prohibiting the US and Russia from placing intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory. However, the US and NATO rejected the proposals' key provisions, particularly the demand that Ukraine is denied membership in the alliance. On Wednesday, February 16, Konstantin Gavrilov, the leader of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, stated that Moscow will be insisting NATO officially express its refusal to accept Ukraine into the bloc. 

NATO urges Russia to seek diplomacy & withdraw forces from Ukrainian border

Kyiv's stance of joining the European Union (EU) and NATO was enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution by a majority vote in the federal parliament in February 2019, breaking a long-standing vow to remain neutral and refuse to join any military alliances. The decision was taken by a new generation of Ukrainian lawmakers, who came to power in 2014 following a Western-backed coup. Meanwhile, the NATO Defence Ministers released a statement, on Thursday, expressing deep concern over Russia's "extremely large-scale, unprovoked, and unjustifiable military build-up" in and around Ukraine and Belarus. They also encouraged Russia to seek diplomacy and withdraw its forces from the Ukrainian border in accordance with international obligations as soon as possible.

Image: AP