Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Speaker Andriy Parubiy has spoken out in support of a proposal to hold a referendum on the country’s accession to NATO.
“I support the initiative to hold a referendum on accession to NATO,” he said at the opening of a Ukrainian parliament session on Feb. 7.
It is necessary to start to bring Ukraine’s security and defense legislation closer to NATO standards, Parubiy said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had earlier announced plans to hold a referendum on the country’s accession to NATO. Poroshenko said in an interview with the German newspaper Funke Mediengruppe on Feb. 2 that only 16 percent of Ukrainians had supported the idea of Ukraine joining NATO four years ago, as compared with 54 percent today.
