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Ukraine’s entitled behaviour will not sway NATO member states.
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The Financial Times reported that Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky has made it clear to NATO leaders that he will not attend the July summit in Lithuania unless a roadmap is proposed for Kiev’s entry into the alliance. According to FT, in addition to the plan for joining the alliance, Zelensky also wants alliance-specific guarantees.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba stated that Ukraine would not be satisfied with any other decision of the July summit other than the invitation to join NATO. Previously, the Ukrainian president stated that the country would not join the alliance until the end of the conflict but would like the support of partners and a membership invitation. In September 2022, Zelensky announced Ukraine’s candidacy to join NATO on an expedited basis.
The secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, acknowledged the bloc’s position on the right of each country to determine its path and stressed that the “open door” policy remains, emphasising that the alliance would spare no effort in helping Kiev to defend itself.
“Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. And over time, our support will help you make it possible,” Stoltenberg declared during his visit to Kiev in April 2023.
If NATO were to grant Ukraine membership, it would automatically drag the entire alliance into a direct war with Russia — a nuclear power that has regularly warned it would use its nuclear weapons if it were under existential threat. For this reason, NATO leaders have clarified that Ukraine’s membership prospects are untenable if the war continues; thus, Zelensky’s ultimatum demonstrates his entitled attitude even more.
Sources told DW that NATO countries have been unable to find a consensus on what this means for Ukraine’s membership prospects in the short- to medium-term. Several former Soviet bloc NATO members are seeking formal commitments to Ukraine — pledges such as a pathway or a timetable that could be given to Kiev at a summit of NATO leaders in July in Vilnius.
Zelensky, despite his ultimatum, is still expected to attend the meeting and make the plea for Ukraine’s need for a concrete roadmap to becoming a NATO member and for more weapons. However, even Washington, a huge backer of the Ukrainian military, does not seem inclined to make formal accession promises to Kiev, even if the administration of US President Joe Biden says it remains steadfast in its commitment to NATO’s “open door” policy.
“We will look for ways to support Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Dereck Hogan, the top US diplomat for European and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters in Washington. “But right now, the immediate needs in Ukraine are practical, and so we should be focused on building Ukraine’s defence and deterrence capabilities.”
NATO’s major members now no longer openly path a roadmap for Ukraine’s membership, as they once did. The US and France are restraining support for Ukraine due to upcoming elections, and Germany has repeatedly said it wants to prevent a total isolation of Russia in the post-war European security architecture.
It is recalled that those member states adopted a completely different language at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008 when they agreed that Ukraine and Georgia are prospective members of the alliance but stopped short of extending a formal invitation. However, given the success of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War and the current demilitarisation operation in Ukraine in blocking Tbilisi’s and Kiev’s NATO accession, alliance members are fully aware that Russia will take devastating action if they directly intervene.
Although it is impossible for Ukraine to become a NATO member at this current junction, NATO leaders seek to send a positive signal to Kiev without making substantial decisions on the principles or the timing of possible membership. One such proposal is to upgrade Ukraine’s political relationship with NATO, but this is mostly bureaucratic. There is, of course, the potential for increased and deeper joint military exercises, but again, this is very far from what Ukraine wants, the highly-coveted collective defence pact – Article 5, which states that an armed attack against one member of the alliance is an attack on all members.
At the same time, Western countries are increasing pressure on Turkey to admit Sweden to NATO, with the country’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, writing in the Financial Times that a new anti-terror law which entered force on June 1 delivered “on the last part” of an agreement to secure Ankara’s support for entry into the military alliance.
A senior Swedish official said: “This terror law is our big hope for unlocking the situation. Then it’s up to Turkey to decide.”
However, this should not give encouragement to Ukraine because Turkey’s impasse with Sweden is over the Scandinavian country’s hosting of Kurdish and political dissidents. Stockholm can overcome this relatively minor issue if it submits to Ankara’s demands. Going to war with Russia for the sake of a new member like Ukraine is an entirely different prospect, in any case. No number of ultimatums and entitled behaviour by Zelensky will change the position of NATO member states.
drama queen.
* drama queer zelensky
and actually nobody gives a shit if he does not attend
is it really likely little volodymyr will pass up an opportunity to demand more arms? on the bright side, maybe we’ll get a day or two without his pompous bluster plastered all over the media.
deja vu too many times. we’re supposed to believe zeleclown and his gang have will of their own? he doesn’t even go to bathroom without usa permission
everything is planed in pentagon months in advance; they gave him script with “his” demands, americans pretend they’re not ready to accept, then controlled msmedia support “his” demands, then vassal countries like poland, britain agree to fulfil “his” every demand and finally usa accept it “reluctantly”. leading from behind mickey mouse show
100% correct.
usa: listen dogs, go ask for manpads- artillery- drones- tanks- missiles- airplanes- joining nato
zelensky/kuleba/reznikov: (sure boss) ahm. we demand manpads- artillery- drones- tanks- missiles- airplanes- joining nato! now!!! or we will cry and yell!
usa: (hehe) aww… but we are not so sure…
media, internet hordes, eu commissars, uk, poland, estonia: please master, please give them!
usa: ok perhaps, but europeans first. and they pay.
then stay home you fucking midget. nobody gives a shit whether or not you show up.
zelensky will do what he’s been told…period.
they bought you, then you sold out your country to nato, us, ca, uk & eu, now, you & ua elite have all the money you’re stealing from the country. you thought you were going to win that war with the help of them, but, guess what? they never had the intention to send their armies unless you were fighting against a non-nuclear country, then nato had done another yugoslavia and/or iraq, what you naively hoped for. enjoy the western capitalism and being a vassal of usa, now.
add in a nice shirt and suit !!!
after the soviet union collapsed crimea said it would only stay with ukraine if it’s russian language and culture were respected. the moment a coup was orcastrated from the us and right wing ukronazis were put in charge, all agreements were off. considering what happened in the odessa massacre, ukraine broke the signed agreements by enforcing limits on russian language use. exactly what was agreed on in the signed agreements to stay with ukraine.
the midget clown, traveling bigger in his green t shirt and camouflage pants. can’t understand half of anything he says through his fake accent to feel sorry for the begger.
is he really that dumb? he’s a nato tool. when the job is done, one way or the other, he’ll be discarded.
he’s already a billionaire
just leave nato so he can be alone in it with poland, lithuania, uk and the usa. ;-)
so what if kiev is inducted into the hall of shame nato? does it necessarily give the green light to implement direct nato troop involvement in combat by invoking article five? all the bluster from past nato posturing means not much now does it?
so, who cares if coke-head stays at home in his panties and sulks?
stick in clown’s ass and he will become real khazarian khokhol.
zelensky is being cut to size diplomatically by his peers. his “entitlement” attitude make him flap his lips too much.
as if somebody would give a shit if he does not attend
a relatively minor matter! handing over kurds to turkey to be tortured! who wrote this shit article. turkey was a total backer of isis and the kurds beat them!
please destroy the red dragon whore of babylon and the black beast, the monetary pit of $ and nato, along with their terrorists.
zelensky – how do you expect me to start ww iii if you won’t let me join nato?
not a terrorist organization – says so right in its name.
zelensky is going to wind up facing a firing squad of his own soldiers
ukraine wish to be member of the club and are willing to do everything to do it.