KYIV, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he saw no need to change Ukraine’s constitution, which enshrines its aim to become a NATO member state, days after offering to drop that ambition in exchange for hard security guarantees.
A block on Ukraine joining the military alliance has consistently been a core Russian demand to end its nearly four-year war against its neighbour.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukraine could compromise on NATO membership if given bilateral security guarantees with protections similar to NATO’s Article 5, which considers an attack on one member as an attack against all.
“To be honest, I don’t think we need to change our country’s constitution,” Zelenskiy said on Thursday when asked about it by a reporter, adding that the Ukrainian people should make decisions about their constitution.
“Certainly not because of calls from the Russian Federation or anyone else,” he said.
Zelenskiy has long said that security guarantees against further Russian incursions, backed by its allies including the United States, were an essential part of any potential peace deal.
However, on Thursday, he said discussions risked moving towards pressuring Ukraine to trade concessions elsewhere in exchange for those guarantees. While he acknowledged there had been no direct suggestions of this during the talks, any such bartering for security guarantees was a non-starter for Kyiv.
“There must be partnership. There can be no question of exchange here,” he said.
Kyiv has enshrined a strategic goal of membership of NATO and the European Union in its constitution since 2019. It has, however, acknowledged that it would not currently be welcomed into NATO by all its members.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Max Hunder; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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