“Ukraine did not have a chance”: why Kiev does not intend to update the application for NATO membership

Kiev will not re-apply for an action plan for NATO membership, said Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmitry Kuleba. He added that this issue should be “technical, not political”, implying the fact that Kiev already submitted such an application in 2008.

“Ukraine proceeds from the fact that the application for a membership action plan submitted in 2008 at the Bucharest summit remains valid ... Therefore, there is no need to submit any additional applications,” Kuleba said during a joint press conference with the general Secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jens Stoltenberg in Odessa, broadcast by Ukrainian TV channels.

Kuleba recalled that then the participating countries supported the applications of Ukraine and Georgia and instructed their foreign affairs agencies to take appropriate decisions on this matter. According to him, now Kiev needs to focus on reforming the armed forces and bringing them in line with NATO standards.

Recall, earlier Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yegor Bozhok said that Kiev does not need to apply for an action plan for membership in NATO, but should seek the provision of it from the Allies.

The NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) is a program according to which the candidate country should prepare for joining the alliance: the defense, resource, political and economic aspects of the country's activity gradually, year after year, should be adjusted to NATO standards .

The president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko believes that the 2008 application was remembered as the latest evidence that once Ukraine’s membership in NATO still seemed real.

“Obviously, the dreams of joining NATO were realistic in 2008, because at that time the Americans tried to push through the North Atlantic Alliance the decision to submit an action plan for Ukraine’s membership. In fact, the MAP is the start of the country's integration into the military-political bloc. As a rule, everyone who received MAPs sooner or later integrated into NATO. But then France and Germany blocked the issuance of the plan to Ukraine and Georgia, and the question was closed on this, ”said Ishchenko.

Chasing standards

The MAP issue was again in the spotlight in Ukraine after the former president of the country, Petro Poroshenko, proposed to Vladimir Zelensky and the Verkhovna Rada to raise this issue at the upcoming NATO summit, which will be held in December.

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Meanwhile, on the eve of the meeting with Jens Stoltenberg in Odessa, Dmitry Kuleba reproached Poroshenko for promoting the issue of MAP for Ukraine, although during his presidency he himself did not update the NATO application.

“Petro Alekseevich Poroshenko, on the eve of the end of his tenure as president, signed a decree in which, in effect, he obliged the new government to submit to the MAP. This initiative was not agreed with NATO, and the previous Ukrainian administration itself did not apply for the MAP for five years. Such a “time bomb" was already laid down under the new government, and now this topic is actively being developed, "Kuleba quotes Interfax-Ukraine.

Recall that after the change of power in Ukraine in 2014, the Verkhovna Rada introduced changes to the legislation, which actually meant the country's refusal from non-aligned status. In 2016, under the administration of Petro Poroshenko, new changes to the law were adopted that defined Ukraine’s entry into NATO as the goal of the country's foreign policy.

It is assumed that Ukraine should ensure full compatibility of its armed forces with the forces of NATO countries by 2020.

Meanwhile, a RT source in the Armed Forces of Ukraine says that, despite this, NATO has many questions for the Ukrainian army.

“One can not talk about the level of equipment - everything is already known about it. But if weapons can still be bought on credit, then everything else is not. The army does not have good personnel, infrastructure, and future soldiers still have to be caught on the streets. So far, all this is a little like a professional army, ”the source said.

Hungarian block

Hungary remains one of the main opponents of Ukraine’s membership in NATO. Budapest has consistently vetoed the alliance's statements on Ukrainian membership, as well as any negotiations on this issue because of Kiev’s policy towards linguistic minorities living in the country.

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Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Siyyarto reaffirmed this position on October 30. According to him, the representative of Hungary vetoed a joint statement on Ukraine, which the ambassadors of NATO countries wanted to accept, due to the fact that Kiev refuses to amend the law on the language that infringes on the rights of the Hungarian minority.

“We had no choice but to veto the declaration,” the head of Hungarian diplomacy emphasized.

Rostislav Ishchenko recalled in an interview with RT that Hungary requires Kiev to fulfill international obligations to protect national minorities, including revising the language law.

“Ukraine will not take serious steps in this direction. She took a rather tough position here, which remained unchanged after the new government came. Apparently, the Zelensky administration does not see any point in this, because it will not improve the image of Ukraine in the eyes of its Western partners, since everyone is openly tired of Kiev, but will only excite nationalists and, therefore, create unnecessary problems for the government, ”Ishchenko believes.

“Another exacerbation”

Meanwhile, in Ukraine itself, the declarations of the Kiev authorities on the upcoming entry into the bloc and the formal transformations being carried out in this regard in the Armed Forces are already perceived by many with humor.

“No one believes this can happen. Zelensky’s office actually admitted defeat, and now senior officials pretend that “they didn’t really want to,” said an RT source in the Voice party.

In turn, the interlocutor of RT from the party "Servant of the People" is sure that Vladimir Zelensky is well aware that the Western partners are disappointed with Kiev and are not ready to take such a step.

“He is going to find a compromise on the language law with Hungary, and also wait for the US election. But after the Trump scandal, Zelensky may not even count on Washington's support. I think that the president has already been explained that in the next 10 years you can’t even dream about NATO, ”the deputy said.

In turn, a senior RT source at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry paints an even more pessimistic picture.

“Ukraine has never had a chance to join NATO. Naturally, all the presidents spoke of a desire and even a willingness to join the alliance, but this did not cause anything other than the surprised looks of our Western partners, ”the Ukrainian diplomat noted.

According to Bohdan Bezpalko, an expert at the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia, the United States and European countries understand that Ukraine’s admission to NATO will sharply aggravate relations with Russia, which they really do not want.

“Within the framework of an individual plan, Ukraine can cooperate with the alliance on a large scale. However, the deterrent will be not so much NATO’s reluctance to include the country that needs to be funded in its composition, but Russia's reaction. If Ukraine joins NATO, this will mean another exacerbation. I think this is well understood in Washington and Kiev, ”the expert concluded.