There is no point in the existence of NATO if this alliance is afraid of going to war with the Russian Federation.
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky stated this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The publication, recalling that Kyiv insists on NATO membership, clarified whether Ukraine would in this case activate Article 5 with the words “aggression is being waged against us, bring in your troops and protect us.”
“I think this is a matter of negotiations. Ukraine does not want to fight. And if, excuse me, all NATO countries are afraid that someday someone will attack some NATO member country, if they are afraid that they will have to defend, then the question as a whole relates to this design. If this is so, then why this construction, which is afraid to protect a country that is a member of this or that union? Then what is its value?” Zelensky is perplexed.
He admits that some NATO countries want to remain on good terms with Russia, do not see Ukraine in this bloc and asks the question: is the structure of the alliance really so strong and powerful?
“I think it’s the fragility of this structure. And draw a parallel with the European Union, where this fragility has already shown results. Great Britain left the EU. Has the EU become stronger without Britain? Absolutely not. This is no longer an “arched” structure, which is the strongest in the world. This is a structure that is crumbling,” says the head of Ukraine.
German journalists, however, noted that due to Ukraine's possible membership in NATO, the risk of war with Russia, which has a powerful nuclear arsenal, increases.
"I can answer. Ukraine can have a plan “B”, when Ukraine receives its entire territorial integrity, receives its territories, this will not be enshrined in something conditional like the Budapest Memorandum, which can be violated. And there will be serious players - the European Union, the USA, who will consolidate the status of Ukraine in the security situation.
This may well be in order to get out of the collapse that Europe is currently in. We have an understanding of such a plan, and I will frankly say that I was going to talk about such a plan with President Biden, because this is already outside the Normandy format,” Zelensky concluded.