At least 7 countries that are members of NATO oppose Ukraineʼs accession to the Alliance. Germany and the USA are among the largest states that are in no hurry to invite Ukraine to the bloc.
Politico writes about this with reference to its own sources.
"To date, the Alliance has not reached the point where it is ready to offer membership or invite Ukraine," said the US ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, who is leaving her post.
Germany and the USA are not the only blockers. We are also talking about Hungary and Slovakia, which are generally pro-Russian. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the victory plan, which includes a clause on Ukraine joining NATO, "more than terrible." And Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in October that allowing Ukraine to join NATO "would be a good basis for World War III" and vowed that he would "never agree" to it. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke about the third world war.
Belgium, Slovenia and Spain do not now publicly and actively oppose Ukraine in the Alliance because of the "loud" position of the USA and Germany. Politico writes that as soon as membership “gets closer to being realized, they will begin to reject the idea of Ukraine in NATO more publicly.
The Baltic countries and Poland support Ukraineʼs accession to the Alliance. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his country is in favor of "opening NATOʼs prospects for Ukraine."
At the same time, Politicoʼs sources say that neither the US nor Germany rule out Ukraineʼs possible accession to the Alliance.
Most European countries will not support Ukraineʼs invitation to NATO in the short term. Any future proposal for membership in the Alliance will also be linked to the implementation of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine.
What preceded
On October 16, President Zelensky publicly presented the victory plan in detail for the first time, speaking before Ukrainian deputies in the Verkhovna Rada. It contains five points — one of them refers to Ukraineʼs accession to NATO.
Zelensky claims that this will be a "testament of determination" and will show how the partners see Ukraine in the "security architecture". According to him, Ukraine does not want to regain the right to be a nuclear power, but in exchange for this, it should receive a "security umbrella" in the form of membership in the Alliance.
"We need NATO because we donʼt have weapons that can stop Putin," the president emphasized.
In one of the interviews, Zelensky said that Ukraine is now closer to NATO than it used to be. According to the president, Germany still remains sceptical about Ukraineʼs membership in the bloc.
"Unfortunately, the leading countries have still not lost their desire not to completely close the door to the Russian Federation," he added.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.