In blatant defiance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO commander Jens Stoltenberg declared on Tuesday that Ukraine, which is now defending itself against an invasion by Russia, will eventually join the Western military alliance.
“NATO’s door is open,” Stoltenberg said to a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania, reiterating an earlier pledge for Ukraine membership that had lapsed since 2008. He mentioned that Montenegro and North Macedonia had just joined the main post-World War II military alliance of the West and that Sweden and Finland will follow suit soon.
According to Stoltenberg, “Russia does not have a veto” over nations entering. “We continue to support Ukraine’s membership, too.”
The former Norwegian prime minister remarked, “President Putin cannot deny sovereign states the right to make their own sovereign decisions that are not a danger to Russia.”
“I believe that he is terrified of democracy and freedom, and that is his major obstacle.”
However, Ukraine will not soon join NATO, which would likely drive the military forces of the alliance’s 30 members into combat with Russian soldiers following the alliance’s mandate.
It would go well beyond the tens of billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid that the United States and its allies have already provided to the Kyiv government to support Ukrainian soldiers as they protect their nation.
Many NATO members argue that the priority should be military assistance to Ukraine rather than a potentially fractious internal political struggle for Kyiv’s membership.
The possibility that NATO membership had a role in Putin’s decision to invade has been raised by certain experts on the conflict in Ukraine.
To prevent President Putin from triumphing, Stoltenberg declared, “We are in the midst of a conflict and we should do nothing that might weaken the solidarity of allies to offer military, humanitarian, and financial support to Ukraine.”
The United States is sending Kyiv an additional $53 million to support the purchase of essential electricity grid equipment in response to Russian airstrikes that have been targeting Ukrainian infrastructure for weeks in an effort to disrupt power and water systems as winter weather sets in, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made the announcement in Bucharest.
