ANY serious talk about Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will be possible but only after the end of the conflict.
This was said by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a joint press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
When asked about his take on the NATO prospects for Ukraine, the NATO chief reiterated that all NATO members agree that Ukraine will join the bloc, though he did not provide a specific date.
“The most urgent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign and independent nation in Europe. Because if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wins this war, then there is no membership issue to be discussed at all,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General said.
The NATO chief said that the main focus now should be on how to ensure that Ukraine prevails.
“And that’s the precondition to any meaningful discussion for membership and one more thing…NATO-UKRAINE council,” he added.
Ukraine has prioritized pursuing NATO membership for several years.
And in September 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally applied to the bloc to expedite the country’s accession as soon as Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed four Ukrainian Regions.
In April 2023, Stoltenberg declared that Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO, while Zelenskyy demanded to know the timeframe as well as the steps needed to speed up the process of Ukraine’s NATO accession.
“We are expecting steps forward, and very concrete ones, if we want to understand for ourselves, for our state and society – that Ukraine will be in NATO,” Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine said.
Earlier in June, Stoltenberg ruled out Ukraine receiving an invitation at the upcoming summit in Vilnius in mid-July.
And just last week, President Zelenskyy called on the NATO chief not to “knock the ground from under our feet”, suggesting that the move could demoralize Ukrainian forces currently fighting Russians on the battlefield.
“[Jens] Stoltenberg knows my position. We’ve told them numerous times: ‘Don’t knock the ground from under our feet,'” he added.
Meanwhile, Pres. Zelenskyy has admitted that the battlefield progress of Ukraine had been slowed than desired and that some people believe that what is happening is a Hollywood movie and are expecting immediate results, but he said that what’s at stake are people’s lives and that his forces will advance on the battlefield the way Ukraine deems best.
Russia has repeatedly made grave warnings against Ukraine’s accession to NATO, with the Kremlin saying that the goal of Russia’s so-called special military operation in Ukraine aims to prevent the country from joining the bloc because it poses a serious threat to Russia’s security.
