Newsweek: Ukraine must wait forever for NATO membership

Daniel R. D. Patrice, a member of the US-based “Defense Priorities” think tank, says in an article in Newsweek that he believes Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to push Ukraine into NATO may be futile.

De Petris writes in his article that even while NATO officials such as US President Joe Biden and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claim that the decision on Ukraine’s NATO membership has been made, the alliance members really do not want to. Kiev to join it. 

This defense expert says that NATO may be happy to send weapons to Ukraine, because this way it can hurt Russia; But getting involved in a direct conflict with Moscow, which is equipped with nuclear weapons, will not be in the plan of this coalition. 

Ukraine has been waiting for NATO membership for a long time. It will probably wait forever, De Patrice predicts, as Western leaders whisper sweet nothings into Zelensky’s ear. According to this defense expert, officials in Kiev still hope to make their way to NATO, despite the fact that even if such a goal is achieved, the security situation in the region will become extremely unstable.

The next meeting of NATO will coincide with the 75th anniversary of its establishment and on July 9th and 10th. The war in Ukraine is probably the most important issue discussed in this meeting. In this meeting, tensions may start again between the president of Ukraine and NATO leaders, because Zelensky is probably tired of hearing repeated words about the possibility of joining the alliance. 

The last time NATO held a meeting with heads of state was a year ago. In this meeting, the leaders of the alliance were content to say that “Ukraine’s future will be in NATO” and that “Kiev will eventually become a member of NATO.” This was not enough for Zelensky and caused him to criticize such statements. In the following, the Americans and the British did not treat Zelensky’s outbursts kindly. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan implicitly called Zelensky ungrateful, and British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace at the time advised the Ukrainians to be a little more patient because “the US and UK don’t have a warehouse full of weapons to give away.”

Translator: Zahra Najafi