Zelensky: We will not negotiate with Russia in the presence of Putin, and we will ask for an urgent accession to NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that “Kyiv will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is its president.”

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that “Ukraine will sign an urgent application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).”

“We take a decisive decision by signing Ukraine’s candidacy for the urgent entry into NATO,” Zelensky said in a video clip posted on social media.

Zelensky added that “Kyiv will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is its president.”

Today, Friday, the head of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament, Leonid Slutsky, said that Zelensky’s statements regarding accelerating Kyiv’s application to join NATO appear to be “an explicit invitation for the alliance to engage in a military conflict with Russia.”

The Russian parliamentarian also noted that Zelensky “in vain did not listen to the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin”, because the only way now before Kyiv “is to lay down arms and return to the negotiating table.”

In turn, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, announced that the Ukrainian side has repeatedly stated its unwillingness to conduct any negotiations with Russia, noting that Moscow is focusing on the special operation.

“The Ukrainian side has completely abandoned the course of negotiations, our requirements have not changed and the objectives of the special military operation have not changed,” Peskov said.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement on the formal accession of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to the Russian Federation, saying that “The people of these regions are now and forever citizens of Russia“.

The Russian president called on the “Kyiv regime to cease fire and war and return to the negotiating table,” stressing his country’s readiness for that.

He pointed out that “Russia will not negotiate the results of the referendum in the 4 regions, and we will defend our lands.”

It is worth noting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov He said last week that “referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson are a response to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s call for Russians to leave Ukraine.”