3 yıl önce

Ukraine leader Zelenskyy to Russia's Putin: 'Let's meet'

Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the current global system is too weak asking for a meeting of global powers to secure new security guarantees for Ukraine

AP

Ukrainian president called on members of the NATO alliance to be honest about whether they wanted Ukraine to join.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at averting an invasion by Russia of Ukraine.

"I do not know what the Russian president wants. For this reason, I propose that we meet," Zelenskyy told an international security forum in Munich on Saturday.

Zelenskyy also said that he wanted to convene a meeting of global powers to secure new security guarantees for Ukraine because the current global system is too weak calling on members of the NATO alliance to be honest about whether they wanted Ukraine to join.

"What can we do? We can continue forcefully supporting Ukraine and its defences. Present... clear, feasible timeframes for membership of the Alliance," he said in Munich.

Ukraine officials under attack

Meanwhile, top Ukrainian military officials came under a shelling attack during a tour of the front of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The officials fled to a bomb shelter before hustling from the area, according to a journalist from The Associated Press who was on the tour.

Earlier Saturday, separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilisation amid a spike of violence in the war-torn region and fears in the West that Russia might use the strife as a pretext for an invasion.

Ukraine and the two regions held by the Russia-backed rebels each accused the other of escalation.

Russia said at least two shells fired from a government-held part of eastern Ukraine landed across the border.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismissed the claim as “a fake statement.”

Ukraine’s military said shelling killed a soldier early Saturday in the government-held part of the Donetsk region and that separatist forces were placing artillery in residential areas to try and provoke a response.

The Kremlin insists it has no plans to attack Ukraine, which has angered Moscow by seeking long-term integration with NATO and the European Union.

Moscow is demanding written guarantees that its neighbour will never be allowed to join NATO, and for the US-led military alliance to roll back deployments in eastern Europe.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies