Ukraine has again called for membership in NATO, saying that only joining the alliance in full would guarantee its future security as it fights to stave off Russia's nearly three-year-old full-scale assault.
"We are convinced that the only such real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent factor for further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is only Ukraine's full membership in NATO," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement released ahead of a December 3 meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels.
In reaction to the ministry's statement, Kremlin spokesman Dimtry Peskov said on December 3 that Ukraine's joining NATO would be "unacceptable" and a "threat" to Russia.
The statement comes just days after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Sky News that Ukraine's NATO admittance could end what he described as the “hot phase of the war” triggered by Russia when it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelenskiy told Sky News on November 30 that he would be willing to consider a cease-fire if Ukraine’s unoccupied territories fell under NATO's protection, as long as an invitation to join the alliance recognized Ukraine's international borders.
"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," Zelenskiy said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha is set to brief his NATO counterparts in Brussels on the current situation on the eastern front, where Russian troops have been making incremental but steady advances against Kyiv's outnumbered and outgunned forces.
The meeting in Brussels is to focus on NATO's continued military support for Ukraine, examine Kyiv's air-defense needs, and also discuss Russia's launching last month of an experimental ballistic missile against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Russia has said that the new medium-range missile, called Oreshnik, can also strike targets across Europe and cannot be stopped by air defenses.
On December 3, Zelenskiy announced that Ukraine had conducted a test on new, domestically developed missiles.
"We thank our Ukrainian missile developers. We're speeding up production," Zelenskiy said on Telegram after a meeting with the leadership of the Ukrainian military.
Russian hybrid attacks and sabotage incidents against NATO members is also due to be discussed in Brussels.
Early on December 3, Russia launched yet another drone attack on Ukraine that was largely repelled by Ukrainian air defenses, which shot down 22 out of the 28 incoming drones over nine regions -- Kyiv, Chernihiv, Vinnytsya, Khmelnytskiy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolayiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.
Russian shelling also killed a woman early on December 3 in the Dnipro district of the southern region of Kherson, local officials reported.
