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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen told The Guardian on June 7 that a group of countries in the Atlantic Alliance could take individual action and send troops to Ukraine in case member states fail to provide security assurances to Kiev at the NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in July.
Rasmussen said:
“If Nato cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action. We know that Poland is very engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground.
“I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius. We shouldn’t underestimate the Polish feelings, the Poles feel that for too long western Europe did not listen to their warnings against the true Russian mentality.”
Rasmussen said security guarantees needed to cover intelligence sharing, Ukraine’s joint training, NATO interoperability, and improved munitions production and weapons supply.
The former NATO chief also noted that some NATO allies might favour security guarantees to avoid a real discussion about Ukraine’s membership aspirations, adding, “They hope that by providing security guarantees, they can avoid this question.”
“I don’t think that is possible. I think the Nato issue will be raised at the summit in Vilnius. I’ve spoken with several eastern European leaders, and there is a group of hardcore, eastern central European allies that want at least a clear path for Ukraine towards Nato membership,” he added.
Despite what Poland and the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) want, according to Rasmussen, Ukraine’s accession to the alliance is impossible. Even if Ukraine does not receive the invitation to the NATO summit, it could very well be extended for the summit in Washington next year because, as Rasmussen noted, “Anything less than that would be a disappointment to Ukraine.”
Earlier, the current NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Ukraine’s security would be the first issue at the summit in Vilnius. The problem for Ukraine is that complete guarantees are provided only to full members of the bloc.
Ukraine’s application process to join the military bloc accelerated in September last year. However, as White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later pointed out, such a procedure is ill-timed.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Moscow is monitoring the situation and recalled that Ukraine’s persistence in wanting to join the Atlantic Alliance was one of the reasons for launching the special military operation.
According to Stoltenberg, NATO countries will agree on the intensification of aid to Ukraine and make a significant decision at the upcoming summit. He specified that the alliance members would increase aid to Ukraine with a comprehensive package that would enable the transfer of the armed forces of Ukraine to NATO standards and bring Ukraine closer to the Western military bloc.
Stoltenberg has stressed that Ukraine will not be admitted into the Western military alliance while the war continues, but NATO has prepared a consolation plan for Kiev. The first is the creation of the Ukraine-NATO Council, based on the one that exists with Israel, and the second concerns some steps that will be taken so that Ukraine has the false impression that it is on the cusp of becoming a NATO member.
Ukraine is asking to join the alliance hoping that Article 5, NATO’s mutual defence pact, will be activated immediately and force other countries to go to war with Russia. Obviously, the overwhelming majority of NATO countries, including the US, categorically refuse this. The main exceptions to this line of thinking are the countries Rasmussen believes “would seriously consider […] assembling a coalition of the willing” to fight Russia – Poland and the Baltic countries.
Stoltenberg claims that all allies agree that NATO’s “door remains open,” that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance, and that Russia has no right to veto it. However, the alliance only deceives Kiev by promising to sell its weapons and eventual membership. Therefore, the “open door” is just a false promise that Ukraine has fully believed.
Ukraine’s purpose for the US is to serve as a permanent threat and tension point against Russia. This is why Ukraine will not be accepted into NATO in the foreseeable future , even if Poland and the Baltic countries push for it, as the rest of the member states do not want Article 5 invoked for the sake of Ukraine.
so basically they know that the ukraine is going to loose, so poland sees this as a chance to station troops in the west of the ukraine on what was traditionally polish land. then they know that russia will let them have it and the ukraine will be divided amongst the countries that want it.
there are some rumours in poland about such scenario (taking back the former polish lands). the greater hope is , the west starts a full-scale war against russia , and as consequence , after the winning of such war , there will be created something like polish-ukrainian union (possibly extended to lithuania and other neighbors, also as alternative to the hated eu.
the intermarium but also with czechia, slovakia, hungary and romania.
the polish army itself , without strong support by nato , is rather a joke. they won’t even get done with the remnants of the asov nazi in west ukraine , if these decide to reject the polish dreams. the ukrainians are not enthusiastic about the possible union with poland anyway. it is absurd and bs, what the mass media try to show the world : the eternal love between poles and ukrainians , once of the sudden despite the bloody past.
polish army is not a joke but it is not as strong as turkey for example. poland has problems with ukraine so they cannot unite. poland also dislikes germany and belarus. so poland has four enemies. russia, germany, belarus and ukraine.
gather the animals and swords poles is going to go on the offense soon
yes lol like 2003 in kerbela in iraq on a flea market , where the polish soldiers tried desperately to buy some weapons to not completely make a fool of themselves when they later should “protect” kurdistan
these goat fuckers in iraq that later became isis totally deserved it though.
running out of ukrorcs so soon? he he he
send the smelly polish pigs, send the romanian gypsies and send the american sodomites. they will die even faster than the ukrov
yes, send all gypsies to where they belong, ie to your country aka gypsy-land 🖕 🖕 🖕 🖕 you gypsy motherfucker …
more baltic and polish widow hook@s for us horny western europeans. that will definitely slash the prices and i see nothing wrong with that!
stupid idea! this would create a dilemma for the us. this would be no case of article 5 of the nato statut. on the other hand to deny help would be a larger political defeat for nato than the defeat of ukraine. but the direct engagement of us troops in ukraine would be the start of ww 3. therefore in my opinion the us must avoid this dilemma by calling back their chain dogs.
more proof that the collective west is bent on continual escalation to the point of nuclear war. they will soon realize since they are slow learners that they cannot beat russia conventionally. so the last step of escalation is of course……….
send in the polaks, and any other mercenary clowns that need to be culled. the destruction of natostan is the end of the eussr and the end of the eussr is the end of the demonic anglozionazi empire of shit.
mother russia is finally concluding its great patriotic war against the backstabbing euro pawns, especially the lying kraut oligarchs and putting the last of the nazis in their holes.
z
all the doors to our coalition of willing butts are and will remain open.
the coalition of the willing will end up like the ukies , 10 km before the front , and then run home , as fast as they can , with a smoked tail.
let this pig go first. you’ll find him quietly hiding in his million euro home sipping wine and eating expensive meats while laughing at the common people going to be eating insects soon.
thunderbird character anders rasmussen trying to instill terror with hollow meaningless statements. oh the poles rush into w.kukraine as protectors of the reich prior to its collapse. wow.
so talin will send their soldiers? all the 30 of them? lol. it will be easy gor russia to enter the midget country then. about poland: they have been sending their nafo mercenazis to certain death from the beginning of this conflict:) but if they officially do it as part of nato, just nuke the nafo hubs
why us and uk aren’t sent troops to ukraine 😅?