Alliance chief says Ukraine will be a NATO member

An alliance chief has assured Ukraine will become a member of NATO in the future – but he was unable to say when the country might join. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte reiterated today that the war-torn nation’s place is among NATO’s ranks. ‘Ukraine will be a member of NATO in the future,’ Rutte said. ‘The question is exactly about the “when”. I cannot answer that now.’

He said Vladimir Putin must understand that ‘we are in this, if necessary, for the long haul. And obviously we want to be in a place where Zelensky and Ukraine, from a position of strength, is able to start talks with Russia .’ It comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that a membership invitation is central to his ‘victory plan’ to end the devastating war with Russia.

He travelled to the EU today to discuss with leaders at their summit in Brussels his five-point plan of action. He will then shuttle across town to meet with NATO defense ministers. The EU is a key supporter of Ukraine – a candidate member of the 27-nation bloc – as it fights Russia’s invasion that began more than 2 1/2 years ago. 

Zelensky outlined his ‘victory plan’ to Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday without disclosing confidential elements that have been presented in private to key allies, including the United States. Major points of the plan include an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and permission to use Western-supplied longer-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia.

These are steps that have been met with reluctance by Kyiv’s allies so far. A draft copy of EU summit conclusions – a text that will likely be tweaked before publication at the end of Thursday’s meeting – reaffirms the bloc’s ‘unwavering commitment to providing continued political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes and as intensely as needed. Russia must not prevail.’

Thursday’s talks in Brussels come as Ukrainian troops are struggling to hold off Russian forces, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where they are gradually being pushed back. Kyiv is surviving with Western help, but Ukraine says it is coming too slowly.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (pictured) criticised slow Western decision-making over Ukraine and said it ‘would be a great mistake to think that our hesitance is the best way to de-escalation.’ If Western allies bolstered support to Kyiv, leading to gains on the ground for Ukrainian forces, ‘then I think Putin would be pressed to go to negotiations table. Right now, he thinks he is prevailing,’ he said when entering the EU summit.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (pictured) said EU leaders ‘have to give a strong signal and unified signal that we continue to support Ukraine as much and as long as needed.’ At their summit in Washington in July, the 32 NATO members declared Ukraine on an ‘irreversible’ path to membership – but for now, NATO is in a holding pattern.

Its biggest and most powerful member, the United States, is facing a presidential election and European allies expect little movement on Ukraine until a new president takes office in January. Beyond that, the United States and European heavyweight Germany remain deeply concerned about being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia, and they lead a group of countries that oppose allowing Ukraine to join NATO until the conflict ends.

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