Just a few hours after Vladimir Putin’s speech on the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Ukraine reacted. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application to join NATO in a video posted on Facebook.
“De facto, we have already demonstrated our compliance with Alliance standards. They are real for Ukraine, real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Facebook.
“We trust each other, help each other and protect each other. That is an Alliance”, he adds.
“We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for NATO membership in an accelerated manner,” announces Volodymyr Zelensky.
No negotiations as long as Putin is president
In his video, the president denounced an “annexation farce”, believing that Russia is trying to “steal what does not belong to it”.
While Vladimir Putin called on Ukraine on Friday to “immediately cease” hostilities and “return to the negotiating table,” Zelensky replied that “Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. We will negotiate with the new President”.
The Russian president formalized this Friday during a river speech the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporijjia. He also issued strong criticism of the West.
Ukraine is also a candidate for membership of the European Union. The Ukrainian president had made the request just days after the start of the Russian invasion, and the EU granted it the status of a candidate country in June.
Sweden and Finland on their way to accession
To join NATO, a country must first start talks with teams of experts from the military alliance. The objective is to obtain from the countries that request accession “the formal confirmation of their will and their capacity to accept the political, legal and military obligations and commitments”, NATO explains on its site.
They must then confirm that they accept these obligations with a letter of intent, detailing their timeline for alterations if necessary. NATO then prepares an accession protocol for the countries concerned, which must be ratified by each NATO member state, according to its national procedure.
“In the United States, for example, a two-thirds majority in the Senate is required to pass the necessary legislation. In other countries, such as the UK, a formal parliamentary vote is not required,” the pact says.
Earlier this year, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden also applied for membership. Accession talks concluded in July and the alliance’s 30 member countries must now ratify the accession protocols according to their national procedures. Emmanuel Macron signed in August, on behalf of France, the protocol for the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which had been adopted by the French Parliament a little earlier.
Source: BFM TV
