Petr Pavel and Volodymyr Zelensky speak this Thursday evening, July 6. The two heads of state appeared in a video posted by the Ukrainian president’s Facebook page. Zelensky appears in it wearing his traditional khaki T-shirt, shaking hands with his Czech counterpart during the official welcoming ceremony. He had traveled earlier in the day to Sofia to discuss his country’s membership of NATO and to plead for an acceleration of the delivery of arms to Ukraine, in the midst of the Kiev counter-offensive against the Russia.
Ukraine’s president had said he would meet with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the presidents of both parliamentary chambers for “substantive negotiations” during his two-day stay in Prague. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Kiev wanted “honesty” in its relations with NATO, a few days before a crucial summit of the Atlantic Alliance in Lithuania and the evening of a deadly Russian strike on Lviv condemned by Unesco. “We need honesty in our relations” with NATO, Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Prague alongside Czech President Petr Pavel. It is time to demonstrate “the courage and strength of this alliance”, he added.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine to receive a “clear signal” that it would join NATO. “Ukraine has not received an invitation in one form or another,” Zelensky said. “I believe it is necessary to demonstrate the strength and unity of the Alliance,” he added.
The Allies are still seeking a common line on the security guarantees they are ready to grant to kyiv as well as on the invitation to Ukraine to eventually join NATO.
During his visit a few hours earlier to Sofia, the Ukrainian president said he had come to fill “the lack of weapons”, while time is running out. He repeated that slow deliveries had delayed kyiv’s counter-offensive, allowing Moscow to strengthen its defenses in occupied areas, including with mines.