MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky plans to call US President Joe Biden to discuss Ukraine's invitation to join NATO. According to him, it makes "no sense" to discuss it with President-elect Donald Trump.
"By the way, I am going to call President Biden in the near future, if he has such an opportunity to talk to me, and raise the issue of the invitation to join NATO, because he is now the current president of the United States and a lot depends on his position. And there is no point in discussing with President Trump something that - as today he is not yet in the White House - and nothing depends on him," Zelensky told reporters.
However, the politician admitted that Ukraine cannot yet become a member of the alliance, but until then wants an invitation and long-range weapons systems, including ATACMS, Taurus and Storm Shadow missiles. "We can't be in NATO now, but an invitation to NATO could take place," the Ukrinform news agency quoted Zelensky as saying.
According to the politician, it is difficult to talk to Trump about inviting Ukraine to NATO, because "he's not in the White House yet, he doesn't have all these legal rights."
At the same time, he said that Kiev "can consider" French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to station foreign troops in Ukraine as a temporary alternative to membership in the alliance. "I will tell you frankly, we can think and work on Emmanuel's position. Do you remember that he suggested that some part of the troops of one or another country should be present in some areas of Ukraine, which would guarantee our security while Ukraine is not in NATO? But first we should have a clear understanding when Ukraine will be in the EU and when Ukraine will be in NATO," he said.
The day before, Trump arrived in France, where he met with Macron and Zelensky. Their talks in a trilateral format ended after 20 minutes without a joint final statement. Later, Trump wrote on his page in the social network Truth Social that Ukraine would like to conclude an agreement with Russia to resolve the conflict, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the start of peace talks. At the same time, Zelensky on his Telegram channel on December 8 rejected Trump's call for an immediate ceasefire.
Kiev's attempts to get invitation to NATO
Recently, the discussion about the possibility of receiving an invitation to NATO has intensified in Ukraine. On November 29, Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News that the "hot phase" of the conflict would stop if the territories controlled by Kiev were brought "under the umbrella" of NATO. According to him, granting NATO membership to a part of Ukraine would stop the "hot phase", but "no one has proposed this". Ukraine does not consider such a proposal, ostensibly because it has not been officially voiced, he said.
This statement immediately provoked a strong reaction in Ukraine. According to the Strana news outlet, this is Zelensky's first statement since February 2022 that he is ready to end the conflict without the return of lost territories.
Already on December 1, Zelensky changed his words, claiming media speculation. He stated that Ukraine would never accept a partial invitation to NATO. In an attempt to get an invitation, Zelensky even said that if Ukraine joined the alliance, it would allegedly not require the implementation of the fifth article of the collective defense treaty. Zelensky admitted that he would be "happy" to introduce foreign troops into Ukraine, but he knows that such a request would make many Western partners stop any assistance to Kiev.