Promising ?
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Some interesting comments from Volodomyr Zelenskyy are emerging, around Ukraine and its potential NATO membership.
Having said before Russia's invasion that he wanted his country to become part of the alliance, he was quoted last week as saying he had "cooled" on the idea.
While the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO have always seemed remote, one of Vladimir Putin's key demands ahead of the invasion was a ban on this ever happening.
And in a further shift, Mr Zelenskyy has said this afternoon that his country must recognise there "is not an open door" to NATO membership.
The president went on to say that "Ukraine understands it is not in NATO", while proposing a way for the nation to protect its skies independently.
It comes after comments overnight in which he said his negotiators had said the current developments in peace talks were "pretty good".
"But let's see," he added.
It remains to be seen if his positivity is misplaced or not, and the White House said overnight that it saw "no evidence" of the kind of de-escalation from Mr Putin that it believes is necessary to foster the "good faith" required for peace talks to succeed.
Nevertheless, if Ukraine were to entirely rule out ever becoming a NATO member, that would carry considerable symbolism in the continuing negotiations.
He lives in Preston …. Enough said
