Ukraine demands to join NATO, will never talk to Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Friday that he will not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, shortly after the Russian leader called for Ukraine to lay down its arms.

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Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is the President of the Russian Federation. “We will negotiate with the new president,” he said in an online video.

He also said, “We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated membership in NATO.”

A little earlier, during a ceremony in the Kremlin, Putin formalized the annexation of areas of Ukraine partially controlled by the Russian military and while facing a Ukrainian counterattack.

Listen to the summary of journalist Alexander Moranville on QUB Radio:

“We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately cease fire and all hostilities and return to the negotiating table,” said Putin, who stormed Ukraine on February 24.

To justify the attack, the Russian president has repeatedly asserted that he must save the Russian-speaking population from the so-called “genocide”, and prevent NATO from making Ukraine a bridgehead to attack Russia next.

Faced with the failures of his army in early September, he ordered the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists.