Zelenskiy's NATO appeal as Russian forces gathered on the border
An analysis of the Ukrainian president's call for faster accession to the alliance, and the accusations from Moscow that preceded it.
What did Kyiv want from NATO on 6 April 2021? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the alliance to hasten the country's accession. He framed the request as a response to a growing build-up of Russian troops and military hardware on Ukraine's borders, and as a way to help end the conflict in the Donbas with pro-Russian separatists.
The appeal came days after a sharp exchange of accusations. On 31 March 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of provoking armed confrontation with the separatists in the country's war-torn east. He also said Ukraine had failed to comply with the July 2020 ceasefire.
The war, which broke out in 2014, had by then killed over 14,000 people.
Taken together, the two statements show how far apart the sides stood. Moscow cast Ukraine as the party escalating the conflict and breaching the truce. Kyiv pointed to Russian forces massing on its frontier and turned to the alliance, tying its membership ambitions directly to both the military build-up and the unresolved war in the east.
