Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on his way to the NATO summit in Vilnius, denounced NATO’s “indecision” and “weakness” on Tuesday, whose hesitations on Ukraine’s membership encourage, according to him , the Russian “terror” against his country. “There seems to be no will either to give Ukraine an invitation to NATO or to make it a member of the Alliance,” Zelensky said on Twitter. He called it “absurd” that his country had no accession timetable, saying it encouraged Moscow to “continue its terror” in Ukraine. “Indecision is a weakness,” he quipped.
“It is unprecedented and absurd, when no timetable is set for either the invitation or the accession of Ukraine”, hammered the head of the Ukrainian state. “This means that there remains a window of opportunity to haggle over Ukraine’s NATO membership in negotiations with Russia,” which encourages Moscow to “continue its terror” against its neighbor, further said. argue Mr. Zelensky.
We value our allies. We value our shared security. And we always appreciate an open conversation. Ukraine will be represented at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Because it is about respect. But Ukraine also deserves respect. Now, on the way to Vilnius, we received signals that…
The meeting of the thirty-one leaders of the countries of the Alliance takes place Tuesday and Wednesday in Vilnius, 35 kilometers from the border with Belarus, an ally of Moscow, and not far from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Mr. Zelensky, who is due to meet his American counterpart Joe Biden there on Wednesday, demanded commitments on his country’s membership prospects from Westerners. “Ukraine deserves to be part of the Alliance. Not now because now is war, but we need a clear signal and this signal is needed now,” he insisted on the eve of the summit.
All the member countries recognize that this prospect is not conceivable as long as the war lasts. It would in fact be synonymous with world conflict: Article 5 of the Alliance states that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. The Kremlin, for its part, has already warned NATO of the “very negative” consequences for European security of Ukraine’s membership. This prospect had been used as justification by Vladimir Putin to launch his invasion.
