Zelensky is calling for his country to join NATO sooner.
(Photo: IMAGO/NurPhoto)
Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sees his country on the way to NATO, despite the Russian war of aggression. In view of new military aid from the West and international support, Ukraine has had a good week for its “movement towards NATO”, Zelensky said in a video message distributed in Kiev on Saturday evening. EU country Lithuania this week recognized the need to invite Ukraine to become a member of the defense alliance at the NATO summit in the capital Vilnius in July.
According to the Kremlin, Zelenski’s striving for NATO is one reason for the Russian war of aggression. In the fall of 2022, Zelensky had applied for his country’s accelerated accession to NATO. He prefers preferential treatment.
The federal government and the USA had expressed reservations about this. In general, a prerequisite for joining NATO is that the candidate must not be involved in international conflicts and disputes over borders. Ukraine was invaded by Russia on February 24.
Lithuania decided this week to host the next NATO summit on July 11 and 12 and try to obtain an official invitation from Ukraine to join the western military alliance. Zelensky thanked the Baltic country for the support. In his video message, he particularly praised the military aid from NATO members Germany, Poland and the USA, among others, who are supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy once again solicited support from countries that, unlike the West, have not clearly distanced themselves from Russia. In Ukraine today there is a fight for universal values that are close to all peoples. “Everyone appreciates security and protection against terrorism,” said Zelenski. No people want what the occupiers stand for: “Russian concentration camps, the deportation of children, the rape of women and the burning of cities”. The more the world learns about it, the faster the aggressor will lose Russia. Then come peace.
Kiev sees “secret data” in US media as Russian fake
Alleged US secret documents on the war in Ukraine continued to cause a stir. Kyiv also believes the new material that has surfaced on the internet is Russian fakes and part of a disinformation campaign by Moscow in the wake of the war in Ukraine. “It’s an ordinary intelligence game,” Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak said on Twitter and Telegram on Saturday. The Russian secret services prepared the documents themselves with the aim of sowing doubts and discord among Ukraine’s allies and distracting them from the next stages of the war.
US media, including the New York Times, reported on Friday about other documents containing US military secrets about Ukraine, China and the Middle East that had appeared on the Internet. The more than 100 documents, which were published on Twitter, among other things, contained information about Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, it said. The Pentagon and the CIA are investigating the matter.
Podoljak explained that the material was a collection of data from publicly available sources mixed with fabrications and intercepted information. All of this was then stamped with a leak of secret data, published en masse on the internet and social media in hopes of generating some credibility.
Podoljak also described the first similar publications on Friday as fake – and as an attempt by the Russians to disrupt Ukraine’s planned spring offensive. The fakes were also badly made, said Podoljak. The initiators targeted journalists and media who would not recognize that they were part of someone else’s game.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
What will be important on Sunday
In eastern Ukraine, the bloodiest battles of the Russian war of aggression are still concentrated in the strategically important city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. There is still no end in sight to the costly battles between the troops of the Russian private army Wagner and the Ukrainian armed forces. However, according to Western experts, the Wagner troops are making progress in Bachmut. Easter marches against the war in Ukraine are once again planned in Germany.
More: Current news on the development of the Ukraine war can be found in our news blog