Volodymyr Zelensky made the appeal in a video address to the nation on Thursday night, Polish state news agency reported.
It came after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Kyiv earlier in the day, making his first trip to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion 14 months ago.
Zelensky told compatriots: “The talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg were devoted to … defence of Ukraine. Protection of the entire rules-based international order. Protection of life.”
He added: “We are preparing for the Ramstein meeting, and Mr. Stoltenberg's position is important. We are preparing for our active actions at the front – they are inevitable.”
Zelensky told Ukrainians: “We are also preparing for the NATO Summit in Vilnius, which is scheduled for the summer of this year, but its content is already being worked out. Exactly at such meetings, in contacts of various levels that we conduct with partners.”
He urged: “Neither the majority of Ukrainians, nor the majority of Europeans, nor the majority of the inhabitants of the entire NATO space will understand the leaders of the Alliance, if a well-deserved political invitation to the Alliance is not sounded for Ukraine at this Summit in Vilnius.”
The Ukrainian president said that his country “did everything to ensure that our application was approved.”
Zelensky added: “It is difficult to even say whose contribution to European and Euro-Atlantic security is greater than that of our warriors ... Ukrainian men and women who defend freedom with their lives. I am grateful to all partners who support us in this.”
‘NATO stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes’: Stoltenberg
Stoltenberg said in Kyiv that “Ukraine’s future lies in NATO” and pledged continued support for the war-torn country, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
The NATO chief told Ukraine: “NATO stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.”
Stoltenberg also reiterated his invitation for Zelensky to visit the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, according to news outlets.
Ukraine’s president said that the Vilnius get-together could become “historic.” He added: "I am grateful for the invitation to visit the summit, but it is also important for Ukraine to receive the corresponding invitation."
Zelensky says NATO needs to 'invite Ukraine into alliance'...
Zelensky told reporters at a joint news conference with the NATO chief: "There is not a single objective barrier to the political decision to invite Ukraine into the alliance and now, when most people in NATO countries and the majority of Ukrainians support NATO accession, is the time for the corresponding decisions."
He also said: "We interpret this visit of the secretary-general, the first of the full-scale war, as a sign that the alliance is ready to start a new chapter in relations with Ukraine, the chapter of ambitious decision."
... give it 'a timeframe for accession'
Zelensky stated that NATO needed to give Ukraine “a timeframe for accession,” adding that his country also wanted security guarantees on its path to becoming a NATO member one day, according to news outlets.
Ukraine, which gained independence from the Russia-led Soviet Union in 1991, announced a bid for fast-track membership of the alliance in September last year, after the Kremlin said it had annexed four Ukrainian regions, the Reuters news agency reported.
Zelensky appeals to NATO countries to speed up supply of heavy weaponry
Ukraine’s Zelensky on Thursday also said he had urged Stoltenberg to press some NATO member countries who he said were slow to provide heavy weapons to Kyiv, according to Reuters.
The Ukrainian president told reporters: “The hold-up of the corresponding decisions is time that is lost for peace and this means the lives of our warriors who have so far not received the necessary defensive instruments in the necessary volumes."
Friday is day 422 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, president.gov.ua, Reuters, The Guardian