2023-07-09 20:09:10
Two days before the NATO summit in Vilnius, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope for the “best possible result” in terms of his country’s NATO membership. He had agreed with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda “to work together to achieve the best possible result for Ukraine,” Zelenskyj said on Sunday. US President Joe Biden called for a “reasonable path for Ukraine” to join NATO.
After meeting Duda in Lutsk, western Ukraine, Zelenskyy said he did not expect Ukraine to join NATO before the end of the war. However, he hopes that the summit will send out a “clear signal” of the intention to include Ukraine in the military alliance. Poland’s President Duda called on NATO partners to give Ukraine “security guarantees” at their summit. At the meeting, Zelenskyy and Duda commemorated the Volhynia massacre 80 years ago.
Biden, meanwhile, told CNN television that he hopes the leaders of the military alliance “will chart a reasonable path for Ukraine to qualify for NATO membership.” In addition, there are “other requirements that must be met, including democratization”.
He doesn’t think there is “unanimity” among NATO countries on whether or not Ukraine “should be accepted into the NATO family now, in the middle of the war,” said the US President. If Ukraine were admitted now, according to Biden, it would mean a “war with Russia” because of NATO’s commitment to collective defense.
Ukraine has so far emphatically demanded to become a member of the defense alliance. In the West, however, there are concerns about a possible escalation with Moscow. Kiev’s NATO accession would mean that Ukraine would fall under the Article 5 NATO alliance case. This provides for a collective response in the event of an “armed attack” on one or more member states.
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