Zelensky criticized NATO countries for being indecisive on the issue of Ukraine. According to him, it is “absurd” when there is no time frame either for the invitation or for the membership of Ukraine, which was promised back in 2008 that it would someday join the alliance. Der Spiegel, which reviewed the draft statement following the summit, said that it does not contain a time frame for Ukraine’s entry into the alliance.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in his Telegram channel criticized NATO countries for the uncertainty regarding Kyiv’s membership in the alliance. According to him, Ukraine received information that the NATO statement on the results of the summit in Vilnius “discussed wording without Ukraine.”
“Now, on the way to Vilnius, we have received signals that language without Ukraine is being discussed (…) Unprecedented and absurd when there is no time frame for either an invitation or Ukraine’s membership; and when some strange wording is added about “conditions” even for inviting Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel. He noted that he would raise this issue at the summit.
“It seems that there is no readiness to either invite Ukraine to NATO or make it a member of the alliance,” Zelensky concluded. He added that Ukraine’s membership in NATO becomes a subject of bargaining in negotiations with Russia.
The German magazine Der Spiegel, which read the “key paragraph” of the draft NATO declaration, notes that it does not specify the specific time frame for Ukraine’s entry into the alliance. “We are ready to extend an invitation to Ukraine if all the countries of the alliance agree that all the conditions (for this) are met,” the final sentence of this paragraph says. The journal indicates that the text of the statement is not final and is still subject to change.
NATO leaders promised back in 2008 that Ukraine would someday join the alliance, but the organization has not set a path or time frame for Ukraine’s membership. Ukraine applied for fast track accession to NATO in September 2022. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “NATO’s doors are always open” for Kyiv, but discussion of Ukraine’s accession to the alliance will be possible only after its “victory”. At the NATO summit, which is taking place in Vilnius, Stoltenberg said that he proposed to cancel the action plan for Ukraine to prepare for membership in the alliance. The cancellation of the action plan will speed up the process of the country’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, explains Reuters.
In turn, US President Joe Biden, in an interview with CNN, noted that he doubts that “there is unanimity in NATO about whether it is worth now, at the moment, to accept Ukraine into the NATO family.” This is due to the fact that Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance before the completion of the Russian “military special operation” * can lead to NATO being drawn into the conflict, the American leader explained.
The NATO Leaders’ Summit is taking place in Vilnius on 11-12 July. One of the main topics discussed at it is Sweden’s application to join the alliance. Turkey blocked it, but Stoltenberg said earlier that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to support Sweden’s bid. Erdogan will submit the protocol on Sweden’s admission to the alliance for ratification by parliament, Stoltenberg said.
* According to the requirement of Roskomnadzor, when preparing materials on a special operation in eastern Ukraine, all Russian media are obliged to use information only from official sources of the Russian Federation. We cannot publish materials in which the ongoing operation is called an “attack”, “invasion” or “declaration of war”, unless it is a direct quote (Article 57 of the Federal Law on the Media). In case of violation of the requirement, the media may be fined 5 million rubles, and the publication may also be blocked.
Source : Forbes
