Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expects clarity on NATO membership
Kyiv/IBNS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged NATO on Thursday to provide a clear timeline for when his country will be able to join the alliance.
"Ukraine should receive a decision on the algorithm for joining the Alliance. It is clear that we cannot join NATO now, while the war is going on, but it is possible and necessary to remove the security uncertainty now," he told the Dutch parliament in The Hague.
Zelenskiy is in the Netherlands as he seeks to secure additional military support from Europe for a looming offensive.
The Ukrainian leader praised the Dutch government for its efforts to muster enough hardware and ammunition for Ukraine from EU member states and suggested that supplies of US-made F-16 fighters could be the next milestone.
"We remember that the Netherlands was the first to say that the F-16 is not a taboo … Your leadership truly provides results. So let's together provide new ones," he said in parliament.
Zelenskiy conceded that obtaining F-16 jets were as difficult as securing NATO membership but suggested that the Ukrainian offensive could change minds.
US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said in April that providing F-16 to Kyiv was irrelevant to the upcoming offensive.
[With UNI inputs]
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