KIEV, December 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that Kiev wants to achieve clarity next year over when the country will be able to join NATO and also to break the deadlock over the peace settlement process in Donbass.

"We wish to break the deadlock over the peace settlement process in Donbass as soon as possible, to have Crimea back, to achieve membership of the European Union in the coming years and to get a very clear timeframe from NATO. We wish to have it in 2022," Zelensky said at a meeting with Ukraine’s ambassadors in the Ivano-Frankovsk Region.

The president noted that Ukrainian diplomacy should be fast, creative, ambitious and effective in order to achieve the goals set by Kiev’s leadership. "It is Europe that needs Ukraine, our Ukraine, and not vice versa, this is ambition," Zelensky explained. According to the head of state, Ukraine should not feel like a "poor relation" and needs to prove itself as a "regional leader" and a "driving force of the processes."

During the Bucharest summit in April 2008, NATO announced that "Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become members of the alliance." However, it refused to provide either state with a Membership Action Plan, which is the first step in the legal procedure for joining the organization. In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) approved constitutional amendments which reaffirmed Kiev’s willingness to join NATO. Ukraine also received the status of NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Kiev’s aggressive rhetoric pointed to the settlement of the Donbass issue by force. According to Peskov, Ukraine "is persistently trying to present Russia as a party to the conflict." At the same time, the presidential spokesman mentioned that Kiev made any negotiations impossible, in particular, because Ukraine has not fulfilled the Minsk accords and has even adopted some laws that contradict them.