French President Emmanuel Maron, during talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, found a way to bypass the latter’s issue of Ukraine joining NATO. According to L’Opinion, the French leader simply decided not to have a conversation on this topic from the beginning.
The author of the April 18 article emphasized that during a meeting with Zelensky, Macron tried to reduce the degree of tension between Moscow and Kiev and at the same time not lose face, despite the fact that he had to discuss with the President of Ukraine the issue of joining alliances.
The material notes that Macron is well aware that the discussion with Zelensky of Ukraine’s accession to NATO will become a problem for Russian-French relations.
After the meeting of the leaders in the French presidential administration, they stressed that the “delicate issue” of Ukraine’s entry into the military alliance should be considered collectively within the framework of the NATO summit scheduled for June, the newspaper noted.
On April 12, Zelenskiy asked US President Joe Biden to help Ukraine join NATO. According to him, the country needs financial support, as well as more weapons “to strengthen the confrontation with Russia.” In addition, the Ukrainian leader a few days earlier assured that membership in the alliance was allegedly the only way to end the conflict in Donbass.
Commenting on his statement, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Ukraine’s entry into the alliance, on the contrary, could aggravate the situation in eastern Ukraine.
On April 15, in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper, the Ukrainian leader said that the country deserved to “leave the waiting room” of the EU and NATO. He noted that he hopes that France will support these aspirations.
On April 18, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk called on the FRG as soon as possible and unconditionally to achieve his country’s entry into NATO. He stressed that Germany, as a country that “bears special historical responsibility for Nazi crimes” against the Ukrainian people, must play a leading role for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance.
In turn, Waldemar Gerdt, a member of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, told Izvestia that there are no prospects for Ukraine to join NATO in the next 15-20 years.
In February 2019, the Ukrainian parliament adopted amendments to the constitution, securing the country’s course towards the EU and NATO. Ukraine has become the sixth state to receive NATO Enhanced Partner status.