Two political signals from Kyiv in early April 2021
A look back at a medical cannabis vote and a call for faster NATO accession in the days before 12 April 2021.
What was Kyiv's political agenda as of 12 April 2021? In the days before that date, two developments stood out, one domestic and one aimed at the country's security partners.
On 7 April 2021, the Verkhovna Rada voted to legalise the use of medical cannabis products. The vote was a domestic policy step, taken by parliament.
On 6 April 2021, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on NATO to hasten Ukraine's accession to the military alliance. He framed the appeal as a response to a growing build-up of Russian troops and military hardware on Ukraine's borders. He also asked NATO to help bring an end to the ongoing conflict in the Donbas with pro-Russian separatists.
Taken together, the two events show a government handling an internal legislative matter while pressing an international security case. The request to NATO was tied directly to the troop build-up and the Donbas conflict, the two concerns the president named.
