Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the Batkivschyna Party and a former Ukrainian prime minister, has called on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to support the idea of holding a referendum on Ukraine's accession to NATO.
“This should be initiated by the president of Ukraine, because it is the president’s function to hold a referendum and show the world that more than 70 percent of people in Ukraine see Ukraine in NATO,” the Batkivschyna Web site quoted Tymoshenko as saying on Ukrainian television.
Preparations for Ukraine’s accession to NATO are among the key elements of the country’s strategic defense, she said.
“Everyone understands that NATO is a lot stronger than even a well-financed, but very outdated and archaic army of the Russian Federation. Today, when we talk about Ukraine’s strategic security and about strategic security of the countries that formerly belonged to the Soviet Union and do not want to be victims in the Customs Union, the talk can only be about one security system, that is, the NATO system,” she said.
She said that Batkivschyna is the only political force lobbying more intensive preparations for Ukraine’s accession to NATO.
“We have tried twice to hold a referendum simultaneously with elections – I tried once to persuade the Ukrainian authorities to hold a referendum during presidential elections, because, by our estimates, over 70 percent of Ukrainians see precisely the NATO system as Ukraine’s strategic protection and the termination of risks caused by potential wars. We are making the second attempt now during the parliamentary elections. But what has the Central Elections Commission done? The Communists and the Regions people [Party of Regions members] gathered and said ‘no’ to NATO,” she said.
