President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the deliberate attack on Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, expressing his intense anger towards Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He made these remarks after his speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute on July 10.
  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Ukraine wasn’t trying to join NATO before Russia invaded

    In the years before war, Ukraine’s leaders made enthusiastic pleas about their desire to bring the country into NATO, and the prospect rose in popularity in public polls

    Ukraine’s leaders in recent years have made enthusiastic pleas about their desire to bring the country into NATO — especially current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was elected into office in 2019.

    His election came on the heels of a move by Ukraine’s parliament to enshrine the goals of joining NATO and the European Union into the country’s constitution in September 2018.

    Three years later, Zelenskyy sat in the Oval Office, meeting with President Joe Biden during an official visit to the U.S., and he told reporters he planned to press his American counterpart on the question of Ukraine’s “chances to join NATO and the timeframe." No timeline or further commitment came out of the meeting.

    But while Ukraine’s leadership has directly pressed for membership since at least 2008, it hasn’t always been popular in the country.

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      Ukraine wasn’t trying to join NATO before Russia invaded neighbors including Crimea in Ukraine,

      2018 and 2019 were well after Crimea, and the popular opinion in Ukraine shifted towards NATO in 2008 because of the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, one of said neighbors.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        But while Ukraine’s leadership has directly pressed for membership since at least 2008

        because of the Russian invasion of Georgia

        Why stop there? Lets argue about the Winter War.

        • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          Because the Soviet Union who is not Russia fought the winter war, and Russia’s government signed the Budapest memorandum in 1994.