MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. The US is actively preventing any serious dialogue about inviting Ukraine to join NATO, so Kiev’s talks with its allies and the alliance’s headquarters boil down to them telling it to "behave calmly," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olga Stefanishina said at the so-called Kiev Security Forum.
"We have not yet found anyone among our allies or in the headquarters with whom we can really talk about this (the invitation to NATO - TASS). In fact, the entire dialogue with allies from the headquarters is now just as follows: ‘Please behave calmly at the Washington [NATO] summit, as we do not know what [former US President Donald] Trump’s tweet after the summit will be.’ To make a long story short," Stefanishina said, as quoted by the Ukrinform news agency.
According to the deputy prime minister, the NATO summit is "networking, conventionally speaking," so Ukraine is urged "not to spoil the atmosphere."
Stefanishina pointed out that Ukraine was not currently talking about NATO membership, but about a legally binding invitation which would guarantee membership. However, according to the official, Kiev "does not even have a vis-a-vis to hold this dialogue."
The deputy prime minister named the United States and Germany as the main opponents to inviting Ukraine to join NATO. In particular, when asked about how the dialogue with the United States is unfolding, Stefanishina said, "Not at all. They are also preparing for the Washington summit, and we are getting ready too, and yet still we are not working together."
The next NATO summit is scheduled for July 2024 in Washington. In January, during a press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Vilnius, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that at the upcoming NATO summit he would seek "at least one concrete step" on Kiev’s path to the alliance.
At the previous NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023, Zelensky voiced discontent that member countries were unwilling to nail down the timeline for inviting Ukraine to join NATO. The Western media said that US officials and other leaders of NATO member states were outraged by Zelensky’s harsh remarks. Following the summit, Ukraine was assured that it would join the alliance when it meets the necessary requirements. Brussels did not elaborate on any deadlines for accession. Nevertheless, NATO has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine cannot join the alliance while the country is at war.