’Ukraine No Longer Pressing For NATO Membership’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is no longer pressing for Ukraine’s membership in the NATO military alliance as part of a compromise to end the Russian invasion.
“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 recognized,” Zelensky said during a video conference with military officials.
Zelensky reportedly also said he is open to “compromise” on the status of two breakaway pro-Russian territories that President Vladimir Putin recognized as independent just before unleashing the offensive on February 24.
He announced as ceasefire talks between Kyiv and Moscow continued.
Stocks surged on the news after plunging dramatically in recent days. However, Russia kept up the pressure with strikes reported around Kyiv, the capital, and other areas.
The fighting came while the leaders of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia traveled to Kyiv to express solidarity toward Ukraine and present “a broad package of support” from the European Union. Tuesday’s prime ministerial visit was kept secret until the last minute as fighting raged around the Ukrainian capital.
THREE LEADERS
The three European leaders were to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, the office of the Polish prime minister, said in a statement.
The Polish, Czech, and Slovenian prime ministers were traveling by train and crossed into Ukraine on Tuesday morning, officials said.
They are in Kyiv just two days after a missile strike on a NATO-backed military facility near the Polish border amid fears the war in Ukraine could spread to more countries.
The leaders came while Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a 35-hour curfew in the capital, warning of “a difficult and dangerous moment.” Russian airstrikes hit a metro station and residential buildings overnight, killing four people, authorities said.
Human suffering also increased elsewhere in Ukraine Tuesday with Russian troops holding 400 people, including doctors and patients, “like hostages” inside a hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, the deputy mayor said.
Earlier, about 2,000 cars carrying civilians managed to leave the city, which was devastated by intense Russian bombardment. Dead bodies were lying in the streets as it is too dangerous to bury them properly.
PREGNANT WOMAN
A pregnant woman and her baby died after Russia recently bombed the maternity hospital in the city where she was meant to give birth, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.
In video and photos shot last week by AP journalists, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble.
Her blanched face mirrored her shock at what had just happened, reporters noticed. The attack was viewed as among the most known brutal moments in Russia’s now 20-day-old war on Ukraine. More than a dozen other patients and staff members were injured.
Those protesting the war can receive up to 15 years imprisonment in Russia. However, Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was fined after interrupting a news broadcast of Russian state broadcaster Channel One with a sign reading “no war.”
It became somewhat more difficult for world leaders to discuss an end to Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two: The Kremlin responded to new U.S. sanctions on several of its defense officials by barring 13 Americans from entering Russia – including President Joe Biden.
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