According to Polish President Andrzej Duda, Kiev cannot join NATO as long as its war with Russia persists.
Speaking at the Krynica Forum in southern Poland on Wednesday, Duda recalled meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky in the months leading up to the bloc’s summit in Vilnius in July to debate Kiev’s future in NATO.
“We were well aware from the start that this was going to be a difficult issue.” “It’s especially difficult because there’s a war going on, and we’re all well aware that direct admission of Ukraine as a full member of NATO is out of the question at this point,” he added, according to PAP.
According to Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states that an attack on one member state warrants a response from the entire alliance, the group would be forced to join the crisis in Ukraine and battle Russia if Kiev is accepted today.
“It was clear that NATO countries would not agree” to such a situation during the high-level meeting in Lithuania’s capital, he continued.
The goal of the Vilnius conference, according to Duda, was simply “to open the door to NATO for Ukraine… so that Russia could not hold this door with its foot.”
The Polish president declined to forecast when Kiev will be able to pass through this “door,” but vowed to support its neighbour on the route to NATO membership “with all our strength.”
Following the Vilnius meeting, Zelensky chastised the EU for failing to include a deadline for Ukraine’s accession in the final summit declaration. On social media, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the omission “unprecedented and absurd,” and said that “indecision” on the matter was a symptom of “weakness” in the partnership.
The Ukrainian president later softened his tone, describing the summit’s overall outcome as “positive.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the European Parliament last week that “Ukraine has never been closer to NATO membership than now” as a result of the formation of the NATO-Ukraine Council and the removal of the requirement for Kiev to submit a Membership Action Plan, as agreed in Vilnius. He did not, however, provide a timetable for accession.
Moscow, which regards NATO as a hostile bloc and actively opposes its eastward expansion, cited Kiev’s desire to join the alliance as one of the key reasons for commencing its military operation in February 2022.
