EU Leaders Weigh Ukraine Security Commitments With NATO Chief

Natalia Drozdiak, Lyubov Pronina and Alberto Nardelli
·4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- European Union leaders are trying to agree on steps to support Ukraine militarily over the longer term amid pressure to provide the government in Kyiv with additional security commitments and a clearer path on joining NATO.

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Arriving at Thursday’s EU summit, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins called for the nation to be given full NATO membership as soon as Russia’s war on its neighbor ends, but others are more cautious. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who joined the talks in Brussels, said members of the military alliance will agree on a “multiyear program to help Ukraine move towards NATO” at their July 11-12 summit.

“All sorts of other guarantees, they’re probably interesting, but what Ukraine needs, and what the rest of Europe needs, is full-fledged NATO membership once the war ends,” Karins told reporters.

EU leaders are set to declare that they “stand ready to contribute, together with partners, to future security commitments to Ukraine,” according to a draft of the summit conclusions seen by Bloomberg, which could still change. Those commitments “will help Ukraine defend itself in the long term, deter acts of aggression and resist destabilization efforts.”

The statement is meant to highlight the EU’s support for Ukraine, including a training mission for its troops and plans to send the country 1 million artillery shells. Member states are looking for more clarity from France about what it will entail, an EU diplomat said, after the government in Paris inserted the wording on security commitments into the draft in late-stage negotiations.

Poland and the Baltics may try to offer more precise wording to clarify that the commitment should include arming and training Ukrainian forces until the war is over, according to a senior EU diplomat. The countries fear some nations, including France, may try to link the commitments to peace negotiations, the diplomat said.

The discussion comes as the US, UK, France and Germany are in talks about bilateral security assurances for Ukraine, which are expected to include commitments on continued weapons supplies, training and financing. They could be presented on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

Stoltenberg told reporters that he expects allies to make announcements at the gathering in Vilnius of additional military support for Ukraine and said that he’s “absolutely confident that the NATO allies will send a very strong message of support.”

Separate to the discussions on security commitments, NATO allies are seeking a unified position on Ukraine’s membership ahead of the summit, when they are due to sign off on a broader package of long-term support of non-lethal aid.

NATO officials are trying to balance the need to deepen ties without making Ukraine a member straight away, given that the alliance’s mutual defense clause could draw it into conflict with Russia.

While they agree that Ukraine won’t become a member as long as the war continues, they also want to provide Kyiv with a pledge that goes beyond what the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreed in 2008 — that Ukraine will join eventually.

That will likely include a commitment not to issue Ukraine a so-called Membership Action Plan, which typically details the steps a country needs to take to join the alliance but is often used to slow down the process, according to people familiar with the planning, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are ongoing.

Allies may agree in the statement to issue Ukraine an invitation when conditions allow, one of the people said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was due to address leaders meeting in Brussels by video link, on Wednesday urged NATO to stop worrying about how the Kremlin and Russian leader Vladimir Putin would react as they consider letting his nation into the alliance.

In a speech to parliament, he outlined his vision for Ukraine to join both NATO and the EU as a modern and digitalized nation, with no Russian forces on its territory.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that the EU and NATO need to provide security commitments that will guarantee military support for Ukraine for the “long haul.”

“The training has to continue, the modernization of the army has to continue,” Borrell told reporters. “Ukraine needs our commitment to continue ensuring their security during the war and after the war.

--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni, Niclas Rolander, Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Jorge Valero, Alberto Nardelli, Katharina Rosskopf, Jan Bratanic, Arne Delfs, Ania Nussbaum, Slav Okov and Piotr Skolimowski.

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