Ukraine has never been as close to NATO membership as it is now, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, speaking at a joint meeting of the EP foreign affairs, defense and security committees.
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Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin heard the request of Vladimir Zelensky for Ukraine to join NATO, as well as different reactions to it. According to him, Moscow is closely monitoring the situation and remembers that it was Kyiv’s orientation towards the alliance that became one of the reasons for the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, “including not only the supply of weapons, but also the training of personnel … in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.”
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“At the NATO summit in Vilnius, we made a number of decisions that bring Ukraine closer to the alliance. We reiterated our position that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, but we also added three elements that bring this membership closer. First, we adopted a comprehensive assistance package and agreed on its funding to ensure that the Ukrainian army is fully interoperable with NATO We strengthened political cooperation by creating a NATO-Ukraine Council where we meet as equals, make decisions We also canceled the implementation of the Membership Action Plan for Ukraine, shortening its path to NATO from two steps to one,” the NATO Secretary General explained.
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“Ukraine has never been as close to NATO membership as it is now,” Stoltenberg concluded.
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At the end of September 2022, Zelensky announced that Ukraine was applying to join NATO on an accelerated basis. At the summit in Lithuania this year, the countries of the bloc approved a multi-year support package for Ukraine, consisting of three points: an assistance plan to achieve compatibility of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with NATO standards, the creation of a Ukraine-NATO council and confirmation of Kiev’s right to join the alliance without first implementing an action plan for achieving membership. At the same time, no time frame for Ukraine’s entry into the bloc, on which Kyiv insisted, was indicated, as well as the conditions that must be met in order to receive an official invitation.
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At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in an interview with American television journalist Tucker Carlson, said earlier that NATO missed a historic chance to accept Ukraine into its ranks 15 years ago, now there is no such opportunity due to the strengthening of Russia. NATO, he said, cannot afford to have a border with Russia along the eastern borders of Ukraine, as this would mean “immediate war.” Orban urged to seek agreements with Russia on a new security architecture that would ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty, but not its NATO membership.
