• 4pm Paris time

Ukraine wants ‘clear’ timeframe for NATO membership

Zelensky demanded a clear time-frame for when Ukraine can join the NATO alliance in his speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. He also told the West to stop its “appeasement” policy towards Russia.

“Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. We have no weapons. And no security … But we have a right – a right to demand a shift from a policy of appeasement to one ensuring security and peace,” he said at the gathering in Munich.

• ​​​​​2:15pm Paris time

Ukraine is ‘looking for peace’

President Volodymr Zelensky told Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday that his country wants “peace”. He also said that Ukraine would need specific support from the United States for its army.

Zelensky is attending the Munich Security Conference on Saturday and plans to return home later the same day, according to a statement from his office.

The Ukrainian leader’s trip had been under scrutiny due to concerns in some Western countries that Russia is poised to launch a military offensive against Ukraine and could do so while the president is out of the country.

Without referring to US President Joe Biden’s questioning of whether it would be wise to leave Kyiv, the Ukrainian presidential office statement insisted that the situation in the country’s east “remains under full control”.

• 11:45am Paris time

A Russian invasion would end up bolstering NATO presence, said Harris

“We will not stop with economic measures. We will further reinforce our NATO allies on the eastern flank” in response to an invasion, Harris said at the annual Munich Security Conference.

The US, along with its allies, is “prepared to move forward with consequences. We have prepared far-reaching financial sanctions and export controls. We will target Russia’s financial institutions and key industries and we will target those who are complicit” in an invasion, warned Harris.

13:44

• 10:45am Paris time

German Chancellor warns a Russian invasion would be a ‘mistake’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also warned that a Russian attack on Ukraine would be a “serious mistake” with high “political, economic and geostrategic costs”.

The German leader dismissed Russian claims of a “genocide” being committed by Kyiv in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as “ridiculous”.

“He [President Vladimir Putin] is coming to argue that in Donbas there is something like genocide, which is really ridiculous, to be very clear on that,” Scholz said, speaking in English at the Munich Security Conference.

• 9:48am Paris time

EU chief slams Russia’s ‘blatant attempt’ to rewrite rules of global order  

In her speech at the annual security conference on Saturday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen lashed out at Moscow over its troop buildup on the Ukrainian border, accusing Russia of making a “blatant attempt to rewrite the rules of the international order”.

“The world has been watching in disbelief as we face the largest build-up of troops on European soil since the darkest days of the Cold War, because the events of these days could reshape the entire international order,” said von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen warned Moscow that its thinking from “a dark past” could cost Russia a prosperous future as she promised a “robust package” of financial and economic sanctions in case of any aggression.

‘Our greatest strength is our unity’

The US vice president’s address at the annual conference on Saturday came a day after Biden said he was “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made the decision to invade.

“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday, adding that Kyiv would be a target.

Harris on Friday declared “our greatest strength is our unity” as she met with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the sidelines of the conference. The Baltic countries have requested the US increase its troop presence on the eastern edge of NATO.

High-stakes annual event

The Munich gathering has been used in recent years by both US and Russian leaders to deliver pivotal messages before an important audience.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2019 pitched President Donald Trump’s “America First” worldview, receiving a tepid response from the mostly European crowd. Biden has addressed the conference as a private citizen, senator, vice president, and president.

At last year’s conference, held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, new president Biden declared “America’s back” in an address that touched on economic and security concerns driven by adversaries Russia and China.

Fifteen years ago, Putin used his own Munich appearance to deliver a broadside against NATO, accusing the alliance of putting “its frontline forces on our borders”. It’s a message that Putin continues to press as he’s encircled Ukraine with Russian forces as he demands the US and other NATO nations guarantee that Ukraine – long aspiring to be included in the alliance – will never be given entry.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)