In the NATO zone

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proclaimed the vowing majority that one of the main goals of the country is to integrate into the Euro -Atlantic security space in order to find membership in NATO. Earlier - despite all the assurances of Russian propagandists about NATO's insidious plans - there was no such statement in Ukrainian legislation.

When Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and unleashed the war in the Donbass, he dealt with a state that officially declared non -block status the main content of his foreign policy. And fixed this status at the legislative level. This very non -block was one of the most important political achievements of Viktor Yanukovych. The fourth Ukrainian president essentially changed the course of the country, which back in 2003 inscribed in Euro -Atlantic integration in the basics of its security policy.

But I will not say that Yanukovych went against the will of the people. Not at all. Against the will of the people were those who advocated joining NATO, and the author of these lines, including. The vast majority of Ukrainians were decisively against Euro -Atlantic integration. Many continued to consider NATO an "aggressive block." When the alliance began operation in Yugoslavia, trying to stop ethnic purge unleashed in Kosovo by the Balkan butcher Milosevich, the Ukrainians were even tougher than the Russians - some of my colleagues then made careers on the exposure of the alliance.

The attempt by President Viktor Yushchenko ended the Fiasco to turn the situation - he did not receive a plan to join NATO, and did not achieve support in his own parliament. Future collaborators from the pro -Russian Party of Regions then ran on parliament with balloons and interfered with work, but most importantly, many allies on the orange Maidan also betrayed the president. Because they counted on the voices of those who are against Yanukovych - but also against NATO.

Now everything is completely different. The decision of the Ukrainian parliament to fix the course on Euro -Atlantic integration meets the will of most of our citizens - and every day the number of people interested in the entry of Ukraine into the Alliance is only increasing. I would write: every day of the war.

Because this change in moods we owe not Poroshenko or Turchinov, not Yatsenyuk or Tymoshenko. We owe them not even the Maidan. There is only one person in the whole world who is responsible for the rapid change in the mood of Ukrainians. This person is Putin.

It was after his treacherous attack on the Crimea, it was after the appearance of saboteurs in the Donbass of the Ukrainians literally his eyes opened. They realized who the enemy is and who is a friend. They realized that "security" and "solidarity" are not empty words. They appreciated all the catastrophic of the error that was committed in the past, when society underestimated the importance of Euro -Atlantic integration - and as a result, one on one with a cruel and insidious aggressor was left.

If not for Putin, we could convince Ukrainians for decades. And now we do not need to prove anything else. We only need to explain to the compatriots why we are not yet in NATO in the third year of the war.

Putin complained to Oliver Stone that he tried to arrange Russia's entry into NATO - but for some reason it did not work out.

Do not worry like that, Vladimir Vladimirovich. You will definitely succeed with Ukraine.