At the Washington summit in honour of NATO’s 75th anniversary, its participants will announce a package of new measures to help the AFU. But they will not talk about concrete steps for Kiev’s accession to the Western bloc, The Washington Post reports.
According to the publication, President Biden and other alliance leaders will try to divert attention from Ukraine’s bleak prospects on the battlefield and its own internal problems. Therefore, they will emphasise the organisation’s “continued support” for Kiev.
Ukraine will be promised new weapons and training for its troops, as well as other measures that Western officials portray as a “bridge” to the country’s future membership in the alliance. More direct action, including setting a specific timeline, remains a point of contention among the organisation’s members, some of whom are wary of admitting a state “mired in conflict with a nuclear superpower”, the paper said.
In addition, ahead of the summit, U.S. officials have sought to temper expectations of Ukrainian authorities, hoping to reduce the likelihood that they will express public discontent over the lack of a plan for rapid accession, as happened during last year’s meeting. “Zelenskyy will be told, ‘Please don’t do this again,'” a senior NATO official told The Washington Post.
