Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a press conference in Kyiv on July 1, 2023. © Sergei Chuzavkov, AFP
Politico: Zelenskyy blasts ‘absurd’ draft text that hedges on Ukraine’s NATO membership timeline
The Ukrainian president’s outrage is raising eyebrows at the NATO summit.
VILNIUS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday denounced NATO negotiators for balking at offering Kyiv a concrete path to joining NATO in a draft communiqué being hammered out at an alliance summit.
The alliance’s leaders are gathering in the Lithuanian capital for a two-day summit, and Ukraine’s bid to join NATO is the most sensitive item on the agenda.
In the latest draft summit communiqué, allies are now considering stating that “we will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine when allies agree and conditions are met,” according to a senior NATO diplomat and a person familiar with the talks, who like others were granted anonymity to discuss internal negotiations.
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Update #1: Zelenskyy outraged after Biden rejects Ukraine’s NATO membership: ‘unprecedented and absurd’ (FOX News)
Update #2: Zelenskyy hits out at NATO’s ‘absurd’ membership delay (Euronews)
WNU Editor: Ukraine President Zelensky is also furious about this …. G-7 Nations to Give Individual Security Pledges to Ukraine (Bloomberg). Instead of dealing with NATO as a whole, Zelensky will now need to deal with 32 member states (I am including Sweden) and Japan. Basically 33 different agreements instead of one or two.
Sighhh …. I understand why Zelensky is upset. He is focused on winning the war. NATO and its individual members are more focused on the process like NATO membership, where to deploy a few troops here or there, making arrangements on defense procurement and who will get what, and how aid will be distributed. All of this will take time, a long time, and Zelensky knows that times is not on Ukraine’s side.
This Vilnius Summit is also IMHO sending a terrible message. Rhetoric aside, it is clear to me that NATO is not focused on winning this war. They are more focused on operational or tactical issues, not on the big strategic moves and positioning that will be needed to win this war. This tells me there is no real leadership in the West, just politicians acting the part.
In Russia. Needless to say. The focus is on the big strategic picture, and more importantly, how to win the war. That is why their military industrial output is going full blast right now, and the whole country is not only geared to make sure the Ukraine conflict ends on Russia’s terms, but also be positioned to counter NATO should they decide to directly intervene.