Zelenski asks NATO for "a clear message" that Ukraine will go in after the war

Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenski called Thursday for a "very clear message" from NATO that Ukraine will be able to join the Alliance "after the war".

"We are realistic. We know that we will not join NATO during the war, but we want to get a very clear message that we will join NATO after the war," Zelenski told a press conference in The Hague with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.

Rutte said his country "supports Ukraine's ambitions in NATO" and said that preparatory work for the Alliance's July summit in Vilnius included efforts to "take some step" in the leaders' final statement on Ukraine's NATO membership and not to use formulas from previous summits.

Zelenski, who said he was "convinced" of victory against Russia, again called for arms deliveries "as quickly as possible" and, in particular, asked the Netherlands and Belgium to help Ukraine create a coalition of countries willing to give it armed vehicles to complement the delivery of tanks that Western allies are already providing.

The Ukrainian president's visit to the Netherlands coincided with that country's commemoration of liberation from Nazi rule in 1945.

"All countries in Europe and the United States know what Hitler's regime brought to Europe. Only blood and victims. It is a tragedy that today, we are again fighting against the regime," the Ukrainian president said.

"We send messages to different parliaments, leaders, not to allow the Russian regime to involve all of us in a world war," Zelenski added.

The Ukrainian president also insisted on the need for his allies to help Ukraine economically in the reconstruction of the country, although he acknowledged that there are "legal problems" in the EU countries to be able to use the frozen funds from the Russian Central Bank, although he said that they are "looking for the appropriate mechanisms" for this.

De Croo said that, based on European sanctions, Belgium has frozen approximately 200 billion in Russian assets since the start of the war, which it is using "for the Ukrainian war effort and to support Ukrainian refugees in Belgium".

Zelenski met with Rutte and De Croo after giving a speech at the World Forum in The Hague, where he called for the creation of a special court - to punish crimes of Russian aggression - from the seat of the International Criminal Court (ICC).