NATO and Ukraine have begun cooperation on high-level innovation by holding a regular meeting of the working group on scientific and environmental cooperation in Brussels, the alliance said.

"Within the framework of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on Scientific and Environmental Cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov and NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges David van Wiel have launched a high-level dialogue on high-level innovation between NATO and Ukraine," the bloc said in a statement.

NATO also noted that the launch of the dialogue is aimed at expanding the existing partnership between the alliance and Ukraine through an exchange of views on the development of innovations for both commercial and defense purposes.

"Innovation plays a special role in confronting an enemy that is many times superior in terms of weapons and manpower ... We are also ready to share our experience with our allies," the NATO press service quoted Fedorov as saying.

In turn, David van Wiel said that "NATO supports Ukraine, including its efforts in the field of innovation."

"They (the participants of the meeting. – RT) identified advanced technologies, energy security and digital resilience as new priority areas of scientific cooperation based on Ukraine's current and future needs, and discussed specific research proposals, including in areas such as the detection of unmanned aircraft systems, the use of artificial intelligence to predict threats to energy networks, spectrum monitoring, as well as digital twins for monitoring energy supply and dynamic adaptation," the alliance said in a communiqué.

On the website of the government of Ukraine there is information that the working group has been functioning since 2000, but no specific results of its activities are given.

Indirect membership

NATO announced the launch of a high-level dialogue on innovation against the backdrop of reports in the European media about the alliance's plans to offer Ukraine to raise its status as a partner of the bloc, while not offering full membership.

Thus, the Euroactiv portal, citing sources in Brussels, writes that the bloc wants to achieve these goals through the creation of the Ukraine-NATO Council (SUN), which would primarily strengthen the political partnership with Kiev.

  • Legion-Media
  • © Lehtikuva

The portal claims that the SUN tool will allow Kiev to be a full-fledged participant in this capacity, and not an invited country at NATO meetings. In addition, such a format opens up new opportunities for cooperation, including in the field of intelligence, the military industry, joint exercises and greater interaction between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the armed forces of member countries.

As Euroactiv reminds, various officials have admitted that Ukraine's entry into NATO is impossible at the current stage. According to the resource, Kiev also recognizes this, but they are waiting for a convincing signal from the alliance.

At the same time, earlier the Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance, Mircea Geoana, said at a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Luxembourg that there was no consensus in NATO on promoting the idea of Ukraine's membership in the bloc.

"The leaders of our countries will determine one of the next steps towards increasing rapprochement with Ukraine. I am a politician, and I see the reality: at the moment, there is no consensus in the alliance that allows us to move in this direction right now," Geoană said.

On the sidelines of the recent G7 summit, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also made a statement that Ukraine currently does not meet many of the criteria for joining NATO.

"This will not happen in the foreseeable future. Of course, among the criteria that NATO formulates for itself, there are many conditions that Ukraine is not able to meet at the moment," Scholz said in an interview with Die Welt.

In turn, Czech President Petr Pavel also noted earlier that the alliance would have the opportunity to consider Ukraine's accession to NATO only after the end of hostilities.

Without practice

Experts interviewed by RT believe that the dialogue on innovation is a NATO tool, with the help of which the alliance is trying to tie Ukraine even more to itself, but it is unlikely to have a practical dimension.

"I think that such a dialogue means only mutual trips to visit each other and nothing more. No one is going to do real research. NATO denotes a formal desire to lure Ukraine into its ranks. However, it is not going to do this while Kiev is in a state of armed conflict and until Ukraine recognizes the territories annexed by Russia, "military observer, retired colonel Viktor Litovkin suggested in a conversation with RT.

NATO is building many channels for managing Ukraine, the expert believes, but wants to use it indirectly - as a tool to contain Russia.

"The bloc is not going to be drawn into an armed conflict, but it is ready to supply weapons and take such beautiful steps as signing meaningless treaties. All the talk about a deeper dialogue is an attempt to blur the eyes of the Kiev regime and not accept the country into the bloc," Litovkin explained.

Such cooperation only leads to the waste of NATO funds, he added.

"The bloc is trying to improve its image in this way. NATO, of course, is developing Ukraine. Including such methods, "said the military analyst.

"Such dialogues, if they are launched, are only for the sake of pictures, because Ukraine is not able to initiate any activity aimed at the future. When the West announces that it is discussing something with Kiev, this is exclusively stuffing for the mass consumer. In reality, they don't discuss much. For the most part, NATO and Ukraine talk about how much money needs to be allocated to Kiev. At the same time, the Ukrainian side is asking for more and more," said Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies.

He also noted that, taking into account the almost 20 years of work of these groups, the result of their activities cannot be called impressive, since the Ukrainian military-industrial complex could not boast of breakthrough developments, and all weapons for Kiev are supplied ready-made from the West. However, the creation of such structures is actually aimed at subordinating Ukrainian statehood to the Western curators of the Kyiv regime, Bruter is sure.

"Suffice it to recall the first government under Poroshenko. There, a number of functionaries were not citizens of Ukraine at all. It was necessary to subordinate or adjust to the Western way a large part of the process of governing the country. Thus, the alliance established the process of "conquest" of Ukraine," the political scientist explained.

However, according to him, this approach is now outdated.

"NATO views Ukrainian territory as a battlefield. When it is clear how exactly the NWO will end, then they will think about the next steps. Western analysts always very accurately determine what can be done now and what should be postponed. At the moment, they are focusing on the transfer of weapons, financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine, arming the Ukrainian army," Bruter concluded.