MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Ukraine will not refuse its path to NATO membership in the future, Andrey Yermak, head of Vladimir Zelensky's office, said.
In an interview with Axios, he noted that Kiev would not abandon its constitutional obligation to pursue NATO membership. "We are living in reality now. We are not in NATO," he added.
Kiev has repeatedly emphasized its desire to become a full-fledged member of the alliance as soon as possible. In September 2022, Ukraine submitted an application to join NATO on a fast-track basis. This January, Zelensky complained that Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, and the US opposed Ukraine's accession to NATO. In March, US President Donald Trump said that everyone already knows the answer to Ukraine's aspirations to join the alliance, adding that Ukrainians have known this answer for 40 years.
In his Axios interview, Yermak also called Trump’s 28-point peace plan "unacceptable" for Kiev and suggested discarding it. "My proposal is to forget about the 28 points," he said. "Life changes so quickly that now I think it's in the past," Yermak added.
According to Western media reports, the initial version of the American plan envisioned Ukraine pledging not to join NATO and the alliance committing not to integrate Kiev, recognition by the United States and other countries of Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and Donbass, the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the granting of official status to the Russian language in Ukraine, limitations on the size of the Ukrainian army, and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. EU leaders expressed disagreement with several of the points and announced the development of counterproposals.