Russia mulling to allow Ukraine to join EU as long as it is not militarily aligned: Report

In a key development, Russia may allow Ukraine to join European Union (EU) provided it commits to stay out of NATO, as Ukrainian authorities expressed openness to a neutrality commitment as part of broer negotiations to halt Russia's invasion of ex-Soviet state,  Financial Times reported.

According to report, which cited four unnamed sources, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are weighing a deal that would require Ukraine to be militarily neutral, barring it from joining NATO or hosting foreign bases. However, deal would allow Ukraine to seek security guarantees from or countries and pursue EU membership. se security guarantees, according to Ukrainian politician and negotiator David Arakhamia, would oblige nations like US to aid Ukraine if it is attacked, an arrangement he compared to NATO's Article 5 collective defence norm.

According to Financial Times, preliminary ceasefire negotiations does not contain any demands that Ukraine's government "demilitarise" or "denazify," two of Russian President Vlimir Putin's stated aims when he ordered invasion last month. Ever since onset of military aggression, negotiators have met for ceasefire discussions many times. It's still unclear wher Ukraine and Russia will reach an agreement. re are still "unresolved matters" between two sides, according to Arakhamia, and some Ukrainian and Western officials appear to question Russia's sincerity.

Russia-Ukraine war

It is pertinent to mention here that many Western diplomats suspected Putin was attempting to remove Zelenskyy's ministration and replace him with a more pro-Kremlin leer when Russian military inved Ukraine more than a month ago. move basically put an end to Ukraine's on-again, off-again attempts to strengn relations with NATO and EU, a ploy that Russia strongly opposes. Russian military, on or hand, has faced stiffer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, which may force it to scale down its aspirations.

Kremlin stated earlier this month that it is open to neutrality for Ukraine, similar to Austria or Sweden, neir of which are NATO members. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, looks to be open to a neutral position as well. He told Russian reporters on Sunday that he's open to talk about neutrality.