Zelenskiy's 6 April 2021 appeal to NATO over Russian build-up
A look back at the Ukrainian president's call for faster alliance accession as troops massed near the border.
What did Kyiv want from NATO on 6 April 2021? President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's answer was speed: he called on the alliance to hasten Ukraine's accession, citing a growing build-up of Russian troops and military hardware on the country's borders.
He also asked NATO to help bring an end to the conflict in the Donbas with pro-Russian separatists, a war that had by then killed over 14,000 people since it broke out in 2014.
The appeal came days after a sharply different account of the conflict from Moscow. On 31 March 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of provoking armed confrontation with the separatists in the east. He also said Kyiv had failed to comply with the ceasefire agreed in July 2020.
The two positions, set out within a week of each other, framed the argument. Ukraine's president pointed to Russian forces gathering near its frontiers and sought closer integration with the military alliance. Russia's president placed responsibility for the fighting on Kyiv.
As an opinion-page question, the issue was how far a request for faster accession could answer both a military build-up and an unresolved war in the Donbas. On 6 April 2021, Zelenskiy put the two problems in a single appeal.
