Zelensky on NATO: ‘No longer interested in their diplomacy’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has urged NATO to take stronger actions throughout Russia’s invasion, said in an interview that aired Sunday he is “no longer interested in their diplomacy.”

“When you’re working in diplomacy, there are no results. All of this is very bureaucratic,” Zelensky said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

“That’s why the way I am talking to them is absolutely justified. I don’t have any more lives to give. I don’t have any more emotions. I’m no longer interested in their diplomacy that leads to the destruction of my country,” the president added.

Since the unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Zelensky has referred to NATO as “weak” and “under confident,” while also previously pushing for Ukraine’s membership in the body.  

“Knowing that new strikes and casualties are inevitable, NATO deliberately decided not to close the sky over Ukraine,” Zelensky said in an earlier video, urging the security alliance to think about “all those people who will die because of you.”

“Because of your weakness, because of your disunity, all the alliance has managed to do so far is to carry 50 tons of diesel fuel for Ukraine,” he said in March. “Is this the alliance you were building?”

NATO has said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine” and last week called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “withdraw all his forces from Ukraine without conditions and engage in genuine diplomacy.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also said that the invasion “has already had long-term consequences” that will require the alliance to “adapt to that reality.”

“NATO is the most successful alliance in history for two reasons. One is that we have been able to unite Europe and North America. The other is that we have been able to change when the world is changing. Now the world is changing and NATO is changing,” the secretary-general added.

Later in Sunday’s interview with CBS, Zelensky added that he was “not disappointed” with President Biden’s response to the crisis.

“I don’t know how another president in his place would help us. I don’t know. It’s difficult,” he said.

“We have a good relationship,” he added, speaking of Biden. “Ukraine depends on the support of the United States and I, as the leader of a country of war, I can only be grateful.”

Biden has also rejected Ukrainian demands for a no-fly zone, and nixed a Polish plan to transfer fighter jets into the country.

However, the U.S. has sent hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Ukraine, including missile systems and lethal drones.