WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2023) Co-founder of women-led peace group CODEPINK Medea Benjamin told Sputnik there is a need for a call for a ceasefire and talks in Ukraine and it is regrettable that Washington is preventing it.
"I think there needs to be a call for a ceasefire and negotiations and it's unfortunate that the United States has stymied this call. Whether it was right after the war (started), when there were negotiations that looked very positive, or the Chinese proposal that the US has just dismissed," Benjamin said.
Benjamin stressed that the peace activists have been supporting all of the calls for peace including by the six heads of states from Africa, the Pope, China as well as by Brazil.
"All of these efforts are important, and we're trying to push our own government to get on board, to be part of pushing for a solution," she stressed.
The peace activist also said that, while she is totally against the Russian operation in Ukraine, she also opposes giving Kiev more possibilities to join NATO.
"The expansion of NATO was part of the problem to begin with, and trying to bring Ukraine into NATO is just saying that we're not interested in the solution," Benjamin said.
Ukraine applied for accelerated NATO membership in September 2022 following the start of the Russian military operation in February of that year.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance was not ready to approve Ukraine's application right away, chiefly due to its active involvement in an armed conflict.
Kiev has said it was hoping to receive a clear invitation to join the NATO bloc at the upcoming summit in Vilnius.
Moscow said it was open to peace negotiations as long as Kiev recognized the territorial gains Russia made since the launch of the military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
