KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on Saturday that he nonetheless sees his nation on the highway to NATO accession, regardless of Russia’s conflict of aggression displaying no signal of stopping after 13 months of combating.

This week has seen good “movement towards NATO,” what with new army support from the West and different expressions of worldwide assist, mentioned Zelenskyy in his each day video message from Kyiv.

Zelenskyy referred to Lithuania proposing to ask Ukraine to develop into a member of NATO on the army alliance’s summit within the capital Vilnius in July. He thanked Lithuania.

The Baltic nation’s parliament determined this week to hunt an invite for Ukraine to hitch the alliance on the summit scheduled for July 11 and 12.

Ukraine’s aspiration to hitch NATO is commonly cited by the Kremlin as one of many causes for Russia’s full-scale invasion final February.

Last yr, Zelenskyy pushed for an “accelerated” accession into NATO, hoping for Ukraine to obtain preferential remedy. The United States and different NATO members, like Germany, have expressed reservations about this, on condition that one of many conditions for becoming a member of just isn’t being concerned in worldwide conflicts.

In his message, Zelenskyy appealed for assist from nations which have but to obviously distance themselves from Russia, saying Ukrainians had been struggling for common values which might be near all peoples.

“Everyone values security and protection from terror,” Zelenskyy mentioned.

Russia stands for “concentration camps, the deportation of children, the rape of women and the burning of cities,” he mentioned.