The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, is reported to have said in an interview very recently to the German paper, Bild, that he is prepared not to insist on his country’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership; one report quoted him as saying that he will not ask for membership on bended knees. Further, he said, in the Bild interview, that he is ready to discuss the status of the eastern region of Donbas. He added that he will do so only in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Unsurprisingly, this constructive rethink on the part of Mr. Zelensky has not received the attention it deserves. There was some mention of it in the Indian media but hardly any in the United States. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov referred to it in his press conference in Turkey a few days ago, describing it as providing some ground for optimism. However, nothing has come out of it so far.
