“For the sane, the situation is extremely clear”: how the West reacts to Ukraine’s plans for accelerated entry into NATO

The European Union declared the futility of the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO in the current conditions.

As Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market of the EU, stressed on the air of the BFM TV channel, the hostilities ongoing on its territory are an obstacle to the country's admission to the military-political bloc.

“President Zelensky asked for NATO membership for his country.

But... in order to apply for membership in NATO, one must not conduct military operations.

In Ukraine, unfortunately, hostilities are underway,” he said.

In this regard, Breton interpreted Kyiv's application for an accelerated entry into the alliance as a "political act."

“She (a request to join. -

) cannot be fulfilled, because in this case the Fifth Article (of the North Atlantic Treaty. -

) would immediately be applied and NATO would enter the war,” the politician explained.

"No More Talk"

On September 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was applying to join NATO on an accelerated basis.

According to him, the country has allegedly de facto already passed its way into the bloc and now it needs to consolidate its de jure status.

At the same time, he pointed out that NATO has a practice of including candidates in its membership on an expedited basis.

“We know it's possible.

We have seen Finland and Sweden start joining the alliance this year without a membership action plan.

This is true.

The same is true for Ukraine.

This is the consolidation at the level of the contract of what has already been achieved in life and what are our values,” he said.

• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signs an application for accelerated accession to NATO in the presence of Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk (left) and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal

• AP

Kyiv's claims have already been supported by the leaders of nine European countries.

As the press service of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis reported last weekend, the corresponding declaration was also signed by the leaders of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland and Slovakia.

Support for Ukraine's NATO aspirations was also announced in Canada.

In addition, on October 5, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, appealed to representatives of the Scandinavian countries with an appeal to support the admission of Ukraine to NATO.

He stressed that today "approaches and procedures need to be changed" to include new members.

“There is no more talk about the potential neutrality of Ukraine or anything else.

Our course is NATO membership... We are confident that our membership will only strengthen the alliance,” he said.

awkward position

Meanwhile, NATO is not yet ready not only to put forward the Ukrainian application, but also to talk about any prospect of Kyiv's membership in the alliance, experts say.

Thus, the bloc's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on September 30 at a briefing refrained from answering a direct question about NATO's readiness to consider Ukraine's request.

Instead, he once again repeated that any country in Europe has the right to apply for membership and the doors of the alliance will always be open for it.

“NATO allies also made it very clear when they met at the Madrid summit that we support Ukraine's right to choose its own path, to decide which security arrangements it wants to participate in.

Of course, the decision on membership must be made by all 30 allies, and we make these decisions by consensus,” he said.

At the same time, according to him, it is now a priority for the bloc to provide assistance to Kyiv for self-defense.

“The main attention and efforts of NATO allies are now focused on this,” Stoltenberg stressed.

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

• AP

• © Olivier Matthys

The United States reacted similarly to the ambitions of the Kyiv regime.

Thus, the head of the State Department, Anthony Blinken, announced the invariance of the US position regarding the alliance and Ukraine and its commitment to supporting the bloc's open door policy.

At the same time, he stressed that the admission of new members should take place in accordance with the established rules.

“There is a procedure for this, and countries will continue to follow this procedure,” the Secretary of State said.

In turn, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Jake Sullivan noted the untimeliness of the issue of admitting Ukraine to NATO.

“At the moment, we believe that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical assistance on the ground in Ukraine;

and the procedure in Brussels should be taken up at another time,” he said.

Commenting on Ukraine's desire to join NATO under an accelerated procedure, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, at a briefing on October 6, noted that Kyiv, by this step, put its Western allies "in a rather difficult position."

“To refuse the country, which the Westerners so diligently nurtured as the last barrier for the “Russian threat”, seems to be awkward, including having to explain.

At the same time, everyone is well aware that raising the question of the need to use Article No. 5, which would automatically make NATO a party to the conflict, is the most serious and dangerous thing, ”she said.

The diplomat also focused on the reaction of NATO countries to Ukraine's application.

According to her, she demonstrates that the Kyiv regime remains only a tool for the West.

“One of the main criteria is that the admission of new members to the alliance should strengthen NATO's security.

And for the sane, if there are still such, the situation with Ukraine is extremely clear... They don’t want any certainty for the Kyiv regime, they need the continuation of the conflict, ”Zakharova explained.

Earlier, the lack of intention to support the application of Kyiv was reported in Bulgaria.

President of the country Rumen Radev noted on October 3 that hostilities on the territory of Ukraine create a risk of the alliance being drawn into an armed conflict.

"The decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO should be made only after clear parameters for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have been developed, which will be accepted by these states," TASS quoted him as saying.

• Flags of EU countries and Ukraine

• globallookpress.com

• © Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa

The unwillingness of the bloc to be drawn into hostilities was directly indicated in an interview with Der Spiegel by the Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO, Rüdiger Koenig.

Otherwise, there is a risk of the conflict escalating into a big war, in which about 30 states that do not want this would become participants, he stressed.

The riskiness of Ukraine's admission to NATO in the current conditions was announced on October 2 on the Europe 1 radio station by the French MEP Jordan Bardella.

“Ukraine's accession to NATO may lead to the fact that Europe and the whole world will find themselves in deadly and extremely dangerous circumstances ... Therefore, I believe that this candidacy is untimely and undesirable,” the politician said.

principled position

Experts note that the current position of NATO regarding the application filed by Ukraine speaks of the true attitude towards Kyiv in the bloc, despite the speeches of individual countries.

As Dmitry Yegorchenkov, director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, emphasized in an interview with RT, the alliance is aware that granting membership to the republic will put the Fifth Article of the NATO Charter into effect and Kyiv will legally begin to demand assistance in the form of military force. 

“Therefore, right now they are finding certain legal justifications so that Ukraine's entry into NATO does not take place.

If the countries of the alliance, and above all the United States, are not interested in breaking their own legal system within the bloc, then there will be no entry in an accelerated mode, ”explained Yegorchenkov.

In turn, political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev recalled that in the history of NATO there are examples of when membership was granted to countries that had any territorial disagreements with their neighbors.

“However, it is one thing to sort things out within Europe between small states, and quite another to participate in a conflict with Russia.

So the evasive position of Brussels and the key players in the alliance is connected with their pragmatism and fears of being drawn into a third world war, ”he said in a conversation with RT.

Meanwhile, the expert stated that in many respects the NATO ambitions of Kyiv led to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

“And the Kyiv regime can no longer so easily give up the prospect of joining the alliance, as this would be tantamount to political suicide for it.

Indeed, in this case, the population of the country will raise them to the pitchfork, wondering why the conflict with the Russian Federation was unleashed then, ”he explained.

However, Ukraine's claims to membership will most likely not be satisfied, as Washington is less interested in it as a member of the bloc, the analyst believes.

“The current situation is more in line with US interests.

They want a Ukraine that fights outside of NATO but fulfills its mission.

Therefore, Washington and the largest members of the alliance will adhere to the position of remote assistance to Kyiv, supporting the republic in the state of a living corpse, capable of inflicting injections on Russia every now and then.

But Western countries will definitely not take responsibility for Ukraine, let alone fight for it, ”Yegorchenkov predicted.