Ukraine latest as hopes raised for peace after NATO compromise despite Putin 'urged to launch missile at USA'
16.03.2022 - 11:25
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Hopes of a peace deal have moved forward after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded for the first time that Ukraine could never join Nato.
The Ukrainian President made the Nato concession in a meeting of politicians from Joint Expeditionary Force nations, a northern European security coalition, including Boris Johnson, saying: "Of course Ukraine is not a Nato member, we understand that.
"We have heard for many years about the open doors, but we also heard that we can't enter those doors. This is the truth and we have simply to accept it as it is."
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He added: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed everything that security in our region, and I am sure international security, was based on. The weight of the organisations we all hoped for. The force of international conventions. It has also called into question the world's most powerful alliance, Nato.”
Mr Zelensky also said peace talks with Russia had been 'more realistic' but said that more time is needed before any breakthrough.
But this came as a Russian politician, Yevgeny Alexeyevich Fyodorov, called on Vladimir Putin to launch a ballistic missile at the largest weapon testing range in the US as a 'warning', The Mirror reports. He urged Putin to launch the missile at the testing range in Nevada because western leaders are assuming "Putin has no trump cards in his hand." Mr Fyodorov believes the US wouldn't retaliate if they were to do this.
The landmark of three million refugees having fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion has also been reached, the United Nations has announced. Paul Dillon, spokesman for the UN's International Organisation for Migration, told reporters