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NATO has never promised that peace talks on the Russian-Ukrainian war would result in Ukraine’s membership in the Alliance.
This was stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a press conference following the NATO ministerial meeting broadcast by Suspilne.
“In Washington, NATO made a commitment to Ukraine’s future membership in NATO, but there was no specific agreement that when peace talks begin and end, they will definitely end in NATO membership. It could be, but it was not clearly stated,” he said.
Rutte is convinced that the main task is to ensure that Russian leader Vladimir Putin never tries to attack Ukraine again. In his opinion, this is “critically important”.
“We talked about it yesterday, we can talk about it in 10 minutes, we can come up with 5-10 options on how to provide these guarantees for Ukraine in the future. But Ukraine has never been promised that NATO membership would be part of the peace agreement,” the Alliance chief emphasized.
As a reminder, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted that Ukraine’s membership in NATO seems unlikely at the moment. According to him, the reason for this is the resistance of Germany and Hungary. However, the head of state is confident that the position of these countries may change if US President Donald Trump “asks for it.”
He also said that if Ukraine does not become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, it is necessary to “build our own NATO.”
Earlier, the president said that if the process of Ukraine’s accession to NATO is delayed “for years and decades” through no fault of the Ukrainian side, Western partners should provide nuclear weapons.
