Ukraine's President seeks 'clear' timeframe for NATO membership

MUNICH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country deserved more support in the face of a feared invasion, as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that everything indicated Russia was preparing a “fully-fledged attack”.

As Western politicians gathered in Germany to discuss the crisis, Russia test-fired nuclear-capable missiles in a show of force. Zelensky condemned “a policy of appeasement” towards Moscow in his speech to the Munich Security Conference.

For eight years, Ukraine has been a shield,” he said. “For eight years, Ukraine has been holding back one of the greatest armies in the world.” Zelensky travelled to Munich despite shelling in his country’s conflict-torn east that left two Ukrainian soldiers dead.

Zelensky called for “clear, feasible timeframes” for Ukraine to join the US-led NATO military alliance — something Moscow has said is a red line for its security. The Ukrainian leader also said he was willing to meet with Vladimir Putin, to find out “what the Russian president wants”.

Western officials in Munich continued to raise the alarm about Moscow’s intentions towards Ukraine, after US President Joe Biden said on Friday he was “convinced” Putin planned to invade, including with an attack on the capital Kyiv, within days. They again warned of enormous sanctions if Russia attacks, with US Vice President Kamala Harris saying this would only see NATO reinforce its “eastern flank”.

“Every indication indicates that Russia is planning a full-fledged attack against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told a German broadcaster on the sidelines of the conference.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against jumping to conclusions. “In crisis situations, the most inappropriate thing to do is to somehow guess or assume,” Baerbock told reporters, after being repeatedly pressed on whether Germany shared Biden’s assessment. “We do not know yet if an attack has been decided on,” Baerbock said.

Zelensky also pushed back against Washington’s dire predictions in Munich. “We do not think that we need to panic,” Zelensky told the audience of top-level officials and security experts from around the world.

Exercises of strategic forces on Saturday saw Russia test-fire its latest hypersonic, cruise and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. The United States insists that Moscow has already made up its mind to invade.

Around 30,000 Russian troops are in Belarus for an exercise which is due to end on Sunday. Moscow has said these forces will return to barracks, but US intelligence is concerned that they could take part in an invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has in recent days announced a series of withdrawals of its forces from near Ukraine, after what they said were regular military exercises. It has dismissed western claims of an invasion plan as “hysteria”.

The volatile frontline between Ukraine’s army and separatists in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk has seen a “dramatic increase” in ceasefire violations, international monitors from the OSCE European security body have said.

Hundreds of artillery and mortar attacks were reported in recent days, in a conflict that has rumbled on for eight years and claimed the lives of more than 14,000 people. The OSCE said there had been 1,500 ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Lugansk in just one day.

Ukraine’s army and separatist forces traded accusations of fresh shellfire on Saturday, with Kyiv saying two of its soldiers had died in a shelling attack, the first fatalities in the conflict in more than a month.

A dozen mortar shells fell within a few hundred metres of Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy on Saturday as he met journalists on a tour of the frontline.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced reports of Ukrainian shells falling on Russian territory as “fake”. Germany and France urged their citizens to leave Ukraine. NATO said it was relocating staff from Kyiv to Lviv in the west of the country and to Brussels.

German airlines Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines said they would stop flights to Kyiv and Odessa from Monday until the end of February, but would maintain flights to western Ukraine.