Ukraine cannot join NATO amid ongoing war, Zelenskyy admits
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Ukraine will not be able to join NATO as long as the war continues, but understands that accession will take place when it has secured its territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 12.
“Ukraine understands that it cannot be a NATO member as long as the war continues,” Zelenskyy said at a joint press briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“We met with many people today, Ukraine will be a NATO member when the conditions are really appropriate. By this, I understand that when it’s safe on our land.”
The results of the NATO Summit in Vilnius are good, “but if there was an invitation to NATO, they would be ideal,” the Ukrainian leader emphasized.
Ukraine’s entry into the military alliance is primarily about the security of the European continent and NATO’s eastern flank, and NATO needs Ukraine no less than Ukraine needs NATO, Zelenskyy stressed.
He added that security guarantees the G7 countries could approve on July 12 would be a “concrete success” for Ukraine.
NATO Summit in Vilnius: What is known
The summit in Vilnius has brought together leaders from 31 NATO countries, including U.S. President Joe Biden, along with additional delegations from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Ukraine, and Sweden (Turkey has finally agreed to unblock Sweden’s membership).
President Zelenskyy arrived in Vilnius on July 11, along with the First Lady, Olena Zelenska.
Ukraine hoped to receive a clear signal regarding the prospects of a future membership of the alliance.
Read also: Conditions for Ukraine’s accession to NATO unknown, says FM Kuleba
On the eve of the summit, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that allies had agreed that Ukraine would join NATO in the future without a Membership Action Plan – the traditional process of accession for new members.
Although NATO member states on July 11 agreed on a unified communique concerning Ukraine’s membership in the alliance, making no timeframe commitments as to when Kyiv might receive an invitation to join.
The communique noted that Ukraine would be invited to join the alliance once member states agree and all prerequisites have been satisfied – without specifying what those prerequisites are, exactly.
The document also remarked that the alliance would aid Ukraine in implementing reforms on its pathway to prospective membership.
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