Ukraine walks back apparent NATO concession as world leaders scramble to avoid
Ukraine appeared to offer and then retract a major concession to Russia amid increasingly feverish attempts by some world leaders to prevent war from breaking out in Europe.
Russian forces — thought to number at around 130,000 — continued to mass near Ukraine’s borders on Monday. Meanwhile, warships, including submarines, streamed toward the Black Sea for naval drills as Kyiv advised airlines to avoid flying over its open waters.
After repeated warnings from the United States and its allies that an invasion could be imminent, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain told the BBC on Sunday that it could drop its bid to join NATO — raising eyebrows in Europe and Washington.
Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko said Ukraine was willing to be “flexible” over its goal to join the alliance, which would be a major concession to Moscow.
“We might — especially being threatened like that, blackmailed by that and pushed to it,” Prystaiko said when asked if Kyiv would contemplate not joining NATO to avert war.
But a day later, Ukrainian officials appeared to walk back the statement, saying there would be no change in Ukraine’s constitutional commitment to become a member of NATO, which it made in 2019.
Asked about Prystaiko’s comments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday Ukraine should stay on its chosen path when it comes to NATO, but also voiced concerns that Ukraine’s membership in the alliance remains more of a “dream” and is not up for Ukraine to decide.
Constraining and even rolling back NATO — the U.S.-led military alliance founded after World War II to counter the Soviet Union — is an aim of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, Putin has been trying to bring the former Soviet republic back into the Russian fold, and a ban on Ukraine ever joining the alliance is among a list of security demands the Kremlin issued in December.
Amid fears of an imminent Russian invasion, Dutch airline KLM has canceled flights to Ukraine until further notice, the company said in a statement on Saturday. German airline Lufthansa told NBC News it was monitoring the situation closely and has not made a decision about suspending flights.
However, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry reassured the country’s airspace remained open, and most airlines continued operations without any restrictions.
Efforts to resolve the impasse continued Monday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveling to Kyiv and Moscow for talks with President Putin on Tuesday.
Ahead of the trip, Scholz warned Russia of immediate sanctions and “hard reactions” if it attacks Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the situation “very, very dangerous” with the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine leaving the world “on the edge of a precipice,” U.K.’s Sky News reported.
Adding to the tensions, two lawmakers from Russia’s ruling United Russia Party on Monday submitted a draft resolution to seek recognition of two breakaway regions in Ukraine’s east as independent states.
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