Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was willing to compromise on the status of two territories recognized by Russia as independent prior to that country's invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy made the remark in an interview with ABC News, Monday.
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was "afraid of controversial things and confrontation with Russia," Zelensky said, noting, "I have cooled down regarding this question a long ago after we understood that .. NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine."
Ukraine is not a NATO member but has a promise dating from 2008 that it will eventually be given the opportunity to join, a step that would bring the US-led alliance to Russia's border.
Putin has argued Ukraine's growing ties with the alliance could make it a launchpad for NATO missiles targeted at Russia. He has said Russia needed to lay down "red lines" to prevent that.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he was not interested in serving as a president of a country that begs "on its knees."
In lieu of NATO membership, the Ukrainian leader said he was interested in receiving "security guarantees."
A spokesman for Zelenskyy's party later clarified Ukraine was interested in the consolidation of a security agreement that would include American, Russian, and Turkish guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty would remain intact and prevent "threats to the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government."
Asked about Russia's demand Kyiv recognize the breakaway regions as independent, Zelenskyy said he was willing to discuss the issue but needed "security guarantees."
Noting the "pseudo republics "have not been recognized by anyone but Russia," he said, Kyiv and Moscow could nevertheless "discuss and find the compromise on how these territories will live on."
"What is important to me is how the people in those territories are going to live who want to be part of Ukraine," he said. "So the question is more difficult than simply acknowledging them."
"This is another ultimatum and we are not prepared for ultimatums. What needs to be done is for President Putin to start talking, start the dialogue, instead of living in the informational bubble without oxygen," Zelenskky said.
Ukrainian forces were bolstering defenses in key cities Wednesday as Russia's advance faltered amid fierce resistance in some areas, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said, while the strategic port city of Mariupol remained encircled as a humanitarian crisis grew.
Across the country, thousands of people are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in nearly two weeks of fighting. Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas – including around Kyiv – by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.
Ukraine's general staff said in a statement that it was building up defenses in cities in the north, south, and east, and that forces around Kyiv are resisting the Russian offensive with unspecified strikes and "holding the line."
In the northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces are placing military equipment among residential buildings and on farms, the Ukrainian general staff said. And in the south, it said Russians dressed in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv.
On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was expected to fly to Turkey later Wednesday and meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday, Cavusoglu's office said.
The trilateral meeting was to take place on the sidelines of a summit being hosted by Turkey, a NATO member nation, but no further details were announced.
In Kyiv, back-to-back air alerts Wednesday morning urged residents to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible over fears of incoming Russian missiles. An all-clear was given for each alert soon afterward.
Such alerts are common, though irregular, keeping people on edge. Kyiv has been relatively quiet in recent days, though Russian artillery has pounded the outskirts.
Kyiv regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said the crisis for civilians was growing in the capital, with the situation particularly critical in the city's suburbs.
"Russia is artificially creating a humanitarian crisis in the Kyiv region, frustrating the evacuation of people and continuing shelling and bombing small communities," he said.
More than 2 million people have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
As Moscow's forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, the fighting has thwarted attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians.
One evacuation did appear successful, with Ukrainian authorities saying Tuesday that 5,000 civilians, including 1,700 foreign students, had been brought out via a safe corridor from Sumy, an embattled northeastern city of a quarter-million people.
That corridor was to reopen for 12 hours on Wednesday, with the buses that brought people southwest to the city of Poltava the day before returning to pick up more refugees, regional administration chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said.
Priority was being given to pregnant women, women with children, the elderly and the disabled.
An intelligence report from satellite imagery and intelligence solutions firm ImageSat International indicated Russia had transferred reconnaissance planes and heavy-lift helicopters for the apparent transfer of equipment to launch ballistic missiles at the Barnovichi airbase located in close proximity to the Ukrainian capital.
Speaking to US media outlets, US intelligence officials said a large-scale attack on Kyiv was to be expected and that such an attack would sow fear among the population and weaken its defenses, making it easier for the Russians to seize the city.
Researchers at the US Institute for the Study of War assessed a large Russian aerial attack was likely to happen in the coming 24 to 90 hours. They said such an attack would likely be waged at night and would represent a new stage in the Russian military's attempts to conquer or cut off the capital, where heavy fighting has kept large Russian forces in static fighting positions.
Also on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there were credible reports that Russia was targeting civilians in Ukraine and urged Moscow to end the conflict, also vowing not to let it spread.
"We have a responsibility to ensure the conflict does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine," Stoltenberg said. "We will protect and defend every inch of all allied territory," he added.
Speaking alongside Latvia's President Egils Levits, Stoltenberg said Russia's invasion was causing horrific suffering and that the humanitarian impact was devastating.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland's surprise announcement that it would give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, a rare display of disharmony by NATO allies seeking to boost Ukrainian fighters while avoiding getting caught up in a wider war with Russia.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland's declaration that it intended to deliver the 28 jets to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of warplanes departing from a US and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
"We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland's proposal is a tenable one," Kirby said in a statement.
The proposed gift of more warplanes would be a morale booster for Ukrainians under pounding Russian assault for nearly two weeks. But it also raises the risk of the war expanding beyond Ukraine.
Russia has declared that supporting Ukraine's air force would be tantamount to joining the war and could spur retaliation.
White House officials were blindsided by the Polish announcement on the MiGs. The proposal did not come up during talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, according to a US official familiar with the talks.
The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said White House officials did not think the proposal would easily solve the logistical challenges of providing aircraft to Ukraine.
US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told lawmakers at a hearing on the Ukraine crisis Tuesday she learned of Poland's plans only while driving to the hearing.
"To my knowledge, it wasn't pre-consulted with us," Nuland told senators.
Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes as it resists mightier Russian forces. Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with the MiG-29s and in turn receive American F-16s to make up for their loss. Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era fighter jets.
The Polish Foreign Ministry announced the plan in a statement, which said the jets would be delivered to Ramstein free of charge.
"At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities," it said.
The Polish government also appealed to other owners of MIG-29 jets to follow suit.
Former Soviet-bloc NATO members Bulgaria and Slovakia also have Soviet-made fighter jets in their air forces.
Poland publicly floated its plan the day before US Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. The disconnect is likely to add an awkward layer to the talks, which were expected to focus largely on U.S. efforts to help Poland and other eastern European nations that have taken in some 2 million refugees since the war started.
Additional air-defense capabilities are the No. 1 priority for Ukraine's military right now, the country's defense attache in Washington, Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi, said after returning from a meeting at the Pentagon Tuesday. "It can be ground-based air-defense systems. It can be fighter jets, whatever possible," he said.
Ukraine also needs additional anti-tank, anti-armor weapons, and coastal defense capabilities to defend against Russian ships in the south, he said.
A senior US defense official has said Ukrainians are flying relatively few of their existing aircraft, for relatively little time, as it is. The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US.assessment, said it's possible that Ukraine does not need more planes and would benefit most from more of the weapons it uses effectively every day, including anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles.
The official also said that Russia currently has the capacity to reach almost the entire country of Ukraine with its surface-to-air missiles, including from within Russia and from ships in the Black Sea.
In order to maintain the pretense that NATO and the EU are not direct participants in the Ukraine conflict, US and Polish officials have been considering a variety of options. One begins with the "donation" of Poland's MiGs to the United States, as Poland announced on Tuesday.
Under one scenario, Poland would deliver the fighter jets to the U.S. base in Germany, where they would be repainted and flown to a non-NATO, non-EU country. Ukrainian pilots would then come to fly them to Ukraine.
No country has been publicly identified as a transit point, but Kosovo, a non-aligned country that is very friendly with the United States, has been mentioned as one of several nations that might be willing to serve as a middle point.
Poland's proposed gift would also weaken Poland's own air force at a time of heightened danger in Eastern Europe.
Poland had been asking for the US to provide it with F-16 fighter jets to replace the MiGs.
F-16 production is backlogged, however, and the next recipient in line for new deliveries is Taiwan, which is facing renewed threats from China and has strong support from both parties in Congress.
In its statement, the Polish government specifically asked for "used" planes, a distinction that would allow the Biden administration to bypass congressional opposition to making Taiwan wait to receive its F-16s.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said any decision about delivering offensive weapons must be made unanimously by NATO members.
"This is why we are able to give all of our fleet of jet fighters to Ramstein. But we are not ready to make any moves on our own because ... we are not a party to this war," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he believed the aid that Congress hopes to approve later this week for Ukraine will include loan guarantees to help NATO allies replenish their air forces after giving MiGs to Ukraine.
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