WSJ: NATO wants to offer Kiev immediate assistance but not membership at Vilnius summit
NATO officials are working on a proposal for immediate assistance to Ukraine “with the exception” of joining the alliance, an initiative to be presented at a summit in Vilnius in July, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing knowledgeable sources.
The decision being drawn up by officials includes a proposal to provide immediate assistance “with the exception” of securing membership, the paper said. However, according to the paper, NATO officials and diplomats want to make it clear that Ukraine will be able to join the alliance in the future.
According to sources, this offer of assistance will be presented in July during the NATO summit in Lithuania.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenski said that Ukraine would not become a NATO member until the conflict is over, but he would like the support of partners in the form of an invitation to the alliance today. At the end of September 2022, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was applying for NATO membership in an expedited procedure. Such a procedure is now untimely, US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan said later. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, commenting on Zelenskyy’s statement, acknowledged the bloc’s unchanged position on the right of each country to determine its path and on the “open door” policy, but stressed that the alliance would concentrate its efforts on helping Kiev. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Kiev will not be satisfied with any decision of the NATO summit scheduled for 11-12 July other than an invitation to join the alliance.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov said that the Kremlin had heard Zelenskyy’s request for Ukraine to join NATO as well as different reactions to it. According to him, Moscow is watching the situation closely and remembers that Kiev’s orientation towards the alliance was one of the reasons why Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine.
Russia earlier sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that any cargo containing arms for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia. The Russian foreign ministry said that NATO countries were “playing with fire” by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov said that pumping weapons into Ukraine from the West did not contribute to the success of the Russian-Ukrainian talks and would have a negative effect. Lavrov said that the US and NATO were directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, “including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel… on the territory of the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries”.
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