Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and NATO without the possibility of a repeat of Russian aggression is a condition for the normal recovery of Ukraine in the post-war period, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said at the international economic forum “Ambrozetti” in Italy.
“Ukraine should be part of the European Union, the European family, as well as the Alliance, the Security Union, the NATO Alliance. What does it give us? This is the impossibility of returning Russia’s or anyone else’s aggression,” Zelenskyy answered a question about what post-war Ukraine should be like.
The president emphasized that security guarantees with Ukraine should be different from the Minsk agreements, which “were a trap”, since Minsk is a frozen conflict that gave the Russian Federation the opportunity to prepare for a full-scale war, “so Minsk cannot be compared with real security guarantees with Ukraine.”
The head of state noted that he does not believe in the possibility of agreements with Putin.
“I came to the Normandy format, we had a Germany-France-Russia-Ukraine meeting. And I spoke with him (with Putin – IF-U). And we agreed with him that there will be a sisfire (temporary ceasefire on both sides – IF-U)… After a while, they started killing us on the contact line,” Zelenskyi said.
The president noted that he called Putin back, reminding him of the temporary ceasefire. “He said yes, we will fix it now. Some time passed and they started killing us again. They were preparing. Therefore, there is no frozen conflict,” the head of state said.
At the same time, Zelensky emphasized that the normal recovery of Ukraine will be impossible without normal security. “The European Union and NATO are important security ingredients for the recovery of Ukraine,” he added.
