NEW YORK, May 5. /TASS/. Admitting Ukraine to NATO risks causing World War III, according to Andreas Kluth, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

"There are excellent reasons to admit Ukraine into NATO. But there are better reasons not to. <…> The security guarantee of membership expressed in Article 5 cannot be given in the present circumstances. <…> The escalation scenarios are impossible to predict. But they include a slide into World War III," the columnist wrote in his opinion piece on Friday, admitting that such a decision "will of course disappoint Ukrainians."

Kluth recalls that the mutual-defense clause of Article 5 of the NATO Charter implies "an automaticity not unlike that of the more complex alliance configurations leading up to World War I."

Earlier, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky demanded that his country become NATO’s 33rd member following Finland and Sweden. Though Ukraine cannot join the North Atlantic Alliance as long as hostilities continue, there are no obstacles to a political decision on its accession, he argued.

Former US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that incumbent US leader Joe Biden has been driving humankind to World War III with his actions. Trump also claimed that he would settle the situation in Ukraine in a day’s time, if he were to be re-elected president in November 2024.