German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, even before the start of Russia’s special operation, refuse to join NATO and declare the country’s neutral status, the Wall Street Journal writes on April 2.
According to the publication, on February 19 in Munich, Scholz “tried for the last time to resolve the situation between Moscow and Kiev,” telling Zelensky that Ukraine should abandon the idea of joining NATO.
The adoption of a neutral status by Ukraine was supposed to take place, according to the newspaper, as part of a broad European security agreement between Russia and the West, which was supposed to be signed by Russian and US leaders Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden.
After Zelensky rejected Scholz’s proposal, European leaders, the newspaper writes, tried to organize a summit between Putin and Biden: French President Emmanuel Macron became a mediator between them. However, the day after Putin called Macron, the summit was allegedly cancelled.
In addition, according to the publication, in mid-January, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, William Burns, secretly visited Kyiv, where he allegedly met with Zelensky and presented him with a plan to “attack” Russia.
The newspaper believes that this information greatly helped the Ukrainian troops in the first days of the special operation.
Earlier, on March 30, Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the President of the Russian Federation and head of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, said that the Kiev authorities had agreed to Russia’s fundamental demands to refuse to join NATO and deploy the alliance’s military bases on its territory.
If Kyiv accepts the conditions put forward by the Russian side, and most importantly, fulfills them, then “the threat of creating a NATO foothold on the territory of this country will be eliminated.” These are the important initiatives that the Russian Federation has insisted on adopting in recent years, Medinsky stressed.
Prior to that, on March 24, Zelensky again asked to accept Ukraine into NATO. In another video message, the country’s president complained about the alliance’s refusal to make an exception in an emergency, as well as the refusal to provide the country with military equipment.
On March 15, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the country was finally convinced that its Western colleagues would not let it join NATO. At the same time, the head of state called on the alliance to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, noting that he understands all the consequences that this could lead to, and also called the fears “self-hypnosis” on the part of the alliance.
Prior to this, on March 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the air of the American television channel ABC said that he had lost interest in the issue of the country’s accession to NATO. He expressed his conviction that the alliance is not ready to accept the republic and fears a confrontation with Russia.
The situation in Donbass escalated significantly in mid-February due to shelling by the Ukrainian military. The authorities of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics announced the evacuation of residents to the Russian Federation, and also turned to Moscow for help. On February 21, the Russian president signed a decree recognizing the independence of the DPR and LPR and promised to support the republics.
Russia launched an operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass on February 24. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified then, the special operation has two goals – the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. According to him, both of these aspects pose a threat to the Russian state and people.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel