US Ambassador Says Ukraine Unlikely to Get Invite to Join NATO

NATO is expected to announce new long-term support for Ukraine at the upcoming Vilnius Summit

US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith has said that Ukraine is unlikely to receive an invitation to join NATO at the alliance’s July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“I think the allies now are in agreement that a proper invitation is unlikely while they’re engaged in a full-scale war,” Smith told POLITICO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that he doesn’t expect his country to formally join the alliance as its fighting a war with Russia, but he is threatening not to attend the Vilnius summit unless Ukraine is given a guarantee that it will receive membership after the war.

Ukraine was first promised it would eventually become a NATO member in 2008. At the time, then-US Ambassador to Russia William Burns, who is now President Biden’s CIA director, warned in a cable released by WikiLeaks that Ukrainian entry into NATO is the “brightest of all red lines” for Moscow.

Smith said that NATO will give some sort of pledge to show long-term support for Ukraine short of full membership. “We want to signal to President Zelenskyy — if he comes in person — we care deeply about having a longer-term relationship with Ukraine and looking for ways to acknowledge, you know, all they’ve accomplished and that our support isn’t going to fade away or that we’re not going to get distracted,” she said.

Smith said that NATO is still negotiating what level of support they will pledge for Ukraine in Vilnius. She said the alliance was closer to an agreement on the issue after NATO foreign ministers met in Oslo last week.

An idea that’s popular among NATO members is an Israel model, meaning the alliance would continue providing billions in military aid for Ukraine each year but would not provide Article V-style security guarantees.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.