The Ukrainian president on Saturday called on the West to at least disclose possible sanctions on Russia as a means of deterrence and announce a “clear” timeframe for his country’s NATO membership.
Speaking at a session of the Munich Security Conference 2022, titled “Ukraine and European Security and East-West Relations and the European Security Architecture,” Volodymyr Zelensky said it would be a “powerful step” to make a list of sanctions public, letting Moscow know of the consequences should it dare to step into an armed conflict with his country.
“We do not need sanctions after bombardment happens,” said Zelensky.
Zelensky also said that a clear timeframe for Ukraine’s NATO membership should be set, adding that the organization had its door open but that “no strangers” had so far been allowed.
He called for a summit of countries of the UN Security Council, with the participation of Europe, Germany, and Turkiye, in the coming weeks to “resolve security challenges of Europe and come up with new effective security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Turkiye has repeatedly shown its willingness to mediate between Ukraine and Russia to resolve the conflict via diplomatic means with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying a trilateral meeting could be held in Istanbul with the participation of leaders of both countries.
Moscow, according to Ukrainian officials, recently amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukrainian borders, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning a military offensive against its neighbor.
Russia has denied that it is preparing to invade and accused Western countries of undermining its security through NATO’s expansion towards its borders.
Russia also issued a list of security demands to the West, including a rollback of troop deployments from some ex-Soviet states and guarantees that some of those states would not join NATO.
