Zelenskyy Fails To Secure Firm Timeline On Ukraine's Nato Membership

NATO leaders say Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance in the future but stopped short of offering Kyiv an immediate invitation, angering President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends 'Raising the Flag for Ukraine in NATO' event and concert in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11, 2023.

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Ukraine’s President failed in his last ditch effort to secure a time invitation for Ukraine to join Nato. This was after Nato did not provide Kyiv with a proper time frame for an invite. NATO leaders say Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance in the future but stopped short of offering Kyiv an immediate invitation, angering President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to The Guardian, the Ukrainian president earlier said there seems to be “no readiness” to invite his country to join. He is currently in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where the summit is happening. The leaders of the 31 member states began a two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital on Tuesday

“Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” the leaders said in a declaration, but they offered no timeline for the process.

“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” the declaration said without specifying the conditions.

However, after the communique, the Ukrainian president blasted the organization’s failure to set a timetable for his country as ‘absurd’.

“It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership," Zelenskyy tweeted.

In a statement he said, “It seems there is no readiness to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make it a member of the alliance” adding that this would give Russia the opportunity to “continue its terror” by leaving open the possibility for it to bargain over Ukraine’s future Nato membership in any peace deal, reported The Guardian.

Zelenskyy had in his earlier statement said Ukraine “deserves respect” and he complained that certain wording of the communique is being discussed without Ukraine. The president formally met Nato members on Wednesday.

“Today I embarked on a trip here with faith in decisions, with faith in partners, with faith in a strong Nato. In a Nato that does not hesitate, does not waste time and does not look back at any aggressor … And I would like this faith to become confidence”, Zelenskyy said in a statement, after the communique reported The Guardian. 

The issue of how to acknowledge Ukraine’s membership ambitions as it defends itself against Russian aggression has exposed divisions within Nato in weeks of intense negotiations, with the US and Germany wary of implying that Kyiv’s membership is inevitable without conditions attached.

Nato agreed in 2008 that Ukraine “will become” a member, but provided no timeline or accession process. All member states agree that Ukraine cannot join the alliance while the war is continuing, given that would trigger Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence clause and bring all members into the conflict.