Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he is no longer hankering for NATO membership for his country, which was a key reason why Russia went to war with its neighbour, a news website reported on Tuesday.
The leader of the war-torn nation is also reported to have gone a step ahead in mending fences with Vladimir Putin, stating that he is willin to compromise on the status of two breakaway pro-Russian republics-- Donetsk and Lugansk --that Moscow insists are independent.
"I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that ... NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine," Zelenskyy was reported to have said in a television interview.
"The alliance is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia," the president added.
Zelenskyy also reportedly said that he does not want to remain the head of a "country that is begging something on its knees."
Russia has long been against the idea of Ukraine's proposed NATO membership.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to give its full name, was formed during the cold war era in order to check the dominance of the erstwhile Soviet Union in Europe.
However, after the USSR was fragmented the alliance continued to expanded further east to embrace former Soviet domains.
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