The Diplomat
The political advisor and deputy director of the Cabinet of the President of Ukraine, Ihor Zhovkva, assured yesterday in Madrid that Ukraine is still “waiting” for the Atlantic Alliance to invite it to join the organization and does not rule out participating in the next Summit, to be held in the capital of Spain on June 29-30.
“President (Volodimir) Zelensky is a very polite person and does not attend any event if he is not invited,” Zhovkva said during her participation in the informative meeting Forum Europe, organized by New Economy Forum.
According to Zhovkva, although “91% of Ukrainians support EU membership,” NATO membership “has always been a rather controversial issue in Ukraine, and not many Ukrainians were in favor of joining ten years ago.” However, the percentage of supporters has risen in that period from less than 50% to “85%” immediately after the invasion of their country by Vladimir Putin’s regime, because Ukrainians believe that the Alliance “is the best guarantee of security in our part of the world against possible Russian aggression”.
In any case, he added, the percentage “has decreased to 65%” because “we are not welcome.” “When at the beginning of the war we asked NATO to close the skies over Ukraine, at least the territory of western Ukraine” to “be a little more covered” in the areas where humanitarian aid is concentrated, “we had no response,” he lamented.
“We are ready to join NATO right now,” said Zhovkva, who recalled that during the Alliance Summit in Bucharest in 2008, “it was said that Ukraine and Georgia would be NATO members and would have to submit to the accession action plan.” Fourteen years have passed and “we have made no progress,” he lamented. “There has been talk about the open door policy, but the door was shut tight,” he added. “We are very polite people, if they don’t want us, we won’t come,” but the possibility of “joining NATO is in the Ukrainian Constitution and, therefore, we will wait,” he assured.
On the other hand, Ihor Zhovkva assured that Spain “has supported Ukraine in these difficult times, and Ukraine really appreciates it from the bottom of its heart”. However, he warned, the Spanish government can still help more, starting with the supply of “heavy weapons”. Spain “knows our requests and we never ask for something that a country does not have”, said the president’s advisor, who assured that during Pedro Sanchez’s visit to Kiev last April 21, Zelenski “spoke with him also about this issue”.
“Spain really is a very valuable partner in terms of weapons, but every minute that is delayed, that shipments are delayed, will be a minute that we will be further away from victory,” he warned. “What we lack to attack, for the counter-offensive in Kharkov are heavy weapons, we need artillery, rockets, tanks, armored vehicles,” he continued.
As for sanctions on Russia, the advisor warned that the partial oil embargo approved this week by the Extraordinary European Council “will be too slow, will come too late and will not be enough.” During the presentation, the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau, stated that the new sanctions on Russia will have “negative effects” on European populations, but “the cost of not adopting them would be much higher”.
