Ukraine will be told that it is too corrupt to join NATO at the alliance’s summit in Washington next week, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
The report cited a US State Department official who said Ukraine needed to take “additional steps” before talks on its NATO membership could progress. “We have to step back and applaud everything that Ukraine has done in the name of reforms over the last two-plus years,” the official said.
“As they continue to make those reforms, we want to commend them, we want to talk about additional steps that need to be taken, particularly in the area of anti-corruption. It is a priority for many of us around the table,” the official added.
President Biden has frequently cited corruption as a reason for not admitting Ukraine into NATO, but that has not stopped him from spending over $100 billion on military and economic aid for the Ukrainian government with virtually no oversight.
The position is expected to be outlined in a NATO communique issued during the summit. During last year’s NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was looking for a clear roadmap to membership, but the alliance’s communique only offered a vague statement that it would invite Ukraine to join “when Allies agree and conditions are met.”
NATO is poised to make some gestures to show support for Ukraine, including the stationing of a senior civilian official in Kyiv, according to The Wall Street Journal. The idea is to show support for future Ukrainian NATO membership without actually offering an invitation.
The Journal also reported that the alliance will announce the establishment of a new command in Wiesbaden, Germany, to oversee military aid and training for the Ukrainian military. The idea is to have the alliance take over duties currently overseen by the US so they could continue in the event that a future US president wants to reduce US involvement in the proxy war.
The report said the steps to “Trump proof” the Ukraine proxy war have taken on a new urgency after President Biden’s poor performance in the first presidential debate. Former President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about the war and said he would work out a deal to end it but hasn’t articulated a plan. He also backed House Speaker Mike Johnson as he moved forward an additional $61 billion in spending on the proxy war.
They are too corrupt to join NATO, but just the right amount of corrupt to fight a NATO/US proxy war.
About the only perk of our current political clusterfuck is that conspiracy theories are back on the table!
NATO is trying to distance itself from Ukraine because, if Trump gets in office, there is going to be a major investigation into Hunter and Jim's tomfoolery.
Remember, you heard it here first folks 🤪
Investigations are nothing but reports which get pigeonholed somewhere in Congress and nothing ever happens.
Agreed. Corruption must be in the eye of the beholder. But to call someone dying to join them corrupt means they are totally blind.
Since when is corruption inconsistent with NATO membership?
First one must bow before the rules of the world established rule order of plutocratic-oligarchy
I hope that this move helps everyone to calm things down a bit….
Too corrupt to join but still trusted with billions of dollars in aid lol
Indeed. Just look at when the Russians simply walked into the Kharkov region to stop them from shelling the civilians in Belgorod. (Which the media never mention.) The Ukies hadn't built the concrete trenches and obstacles. The money for that – gone.
A Western nurse said she has to hide medicine and equipment under cheaper things when she goes to the front, because the guards and police will steal them at the many checkpoints.
The Western aid organizations send first-aid kits to be handed out in a first-aid course, and then see the kits being sold on the black market.
Ukraine has moved up a bit in the Transparency International corruption index, thanks to Western threats of cutting off various aid, but they are still on the level of Bosnia.
(Best in the index: Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg. Bottom: Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Nicaragua, North Korea, Yemen, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia. You see the trend.)
It is all true, only don't forget that those who are monitoring the level of corruption in different countries are financed by American oligarchy.
It is ridiculous when NATO bureaucrats, who are ultimately subordinated to Federal Reserve cartel are accusing anyone of corruption.
That's like telling someone they are too corrupt to join the Mafia
LOLOL. Great one, Foodoo!
Exactly. The entire organization is a money laundering protection racket but the Ukies are just too corrupt for it supposedly.
Because they laundered it internally instead of sending it all to the boss.
NATO: "Ukraine, you are too corrupt to join us!" That would be the funniest example of hypocrisy ever, if it weren't for all the Ukrainians who died thinking they're almost joining NATO.
Corruption is a two way yellow brick road. NATO wants it to be only one way and leading straight back to Brussel.
“We have to step back and applaud everything that Ukraine has done in the name of reforms over the last two-plus years,” the official said.
As John McEnroe once said, "You can't be f*cking serious!!"
The only time I can think of that Z did anything about "corruption" was when he tried to do something about Ukrainians (who could afford it) buying their way out of military service. In other words, only when it suited him.
Well, I mean, Zelenskiyy has 'reformed' the Ukrainian government to fix the whole "democratic process" and "elections" issue.
And he's a job-creator ! I mean, it's all temp work as "cannon fodder". And military-age male emigration is at historic lows !
To that end – was watching the Euro cup when Ukraine was playing, and I had to wonder aloud who all the 18-50 year old men cheering on the Ukrainian side could possibly be.
Old men love war; females become desperate, and the old men provide for them.
. . . . and then some females send "dear john" letters.
What, only NATO's DeFacto "boss" is allowed to be corrupt? That's not fair….. 😉
Forgive my early morning humor (ill humor) but I did chuckle a bit…. ;-/
This is insanity, listening to this BS, is like listening to Netanyahu criticize Hitler. We have the most VILE, CORRUPT Leaders on this planet at the same time, who have NO respect for Human Life and all we can do is TRY to vote them out. The Ukraine problem was created by the so called Democracies, the wars for the last 7 decades created by so called Democracies, majority of the World's problems, created by so called Democracies. We all need to do better when voting.
Who is good to vote for?
It took NATO a long time to see that the Zelensky Ukrainian government is corrupt. It is also an anti-democratic government that has suspended elections and outlawed most political parties.
To pretend that the Biden government and NATO are arming Ukraine to “safe democracy“ is a huge lie.
“It took NATO a long time to see that the Zelensky Ukrainian government is corrupt.”
Nah, they knew that from the start.
Yes, there were many media reports of Ukrainian corruption before we overthrew a properly elected government and put our puppets in charge. Then, crickets.
They mistreat religious groups/institutions also.
" including the stationing of a senior civilian official in Kyiv"
He better have a fast way out of the country available to him 24/7 or he's a dead man.
“As they continue to make those reforms, we want to commend them…"
NO elections
NO independent media
NO political opposition allowed
Imprisoning an American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, in a dungeon where he died after being tortured. Not one stern word from NATO/US about that.
It's amazing how many congress critters voted against having inspector general oversight on the money being sent to Ukraine. The fix was in.
The mother NATO is too corrupt to begin with…! Let alone the adapted son…!
spiteful on NATO's part it needs defense not some warnings over corruption
They can fix corruption, the real problem however, is that Russia is unlikely to end the war until they are told they will NOT join regardless of how corrupt they are. In fact, if they had been told NO, this entire war would have been avoided.
I don't care how corrupt they are, they shouldn't be joining because we should be conscious of Russian security concerns. Ukraine should have been told that in no uncertain terms and if they are told that now, it might very well save a lot of lives.
This is the wrong reason to tell them no.
So; in 2021 when Russia demanded that NATO NOT extend membership to Ukraine, and that Ukraine should officially declare themselves a neutral, unaligned state, had NATO said "we agree; they're too corrupt to join anyway" all this presumably could have been avoided. What a pack of scoundrels. If anything good comes out of this war, it should be an unending, deep, intense hatred for the west within Ukraine.
There was never any chance of Ukraine joining NATO without Russian permission, because it only takes one NATO member state to veto admission of a new member state, and Russia has good enough relations with several NATO member states to easily buy a veto.
And had NATO simply said that, and made it clear to Ukraine that neutrality was their only option, this war might not have happened.
Why would NATO saying something that Putin already knew have had any effect on Putin's actions?
To avoid Putin using it as a pretext for invading. Why wouldn't NATO do that?
LOL. Lavrov: “Diplomacy is not guessing. Diplomacy is like pudding. You know (what it is) when you eat it.”
Who says he already “knew” that? NATO membership was his expressed red line; he asked for a guarantee in 2021, and Biden refused him. See multiple columns posted here, on the board you monitor by Jeffrey Sachs.
I guess that’s where we disagree.
I don’t think Putin is an idiot.
Apparently you do.
Well someone is; but I don’t think it’s Putin. Jeffrey Sachs, Ray McGovern, David Stockman, most other columnists on THIS SITE also disagree with you. They say JUST THE OPPOSITE; maybe you should lend them your crystal ball.
Instead of worrying about who gets into NATO and who does not, why not just abolish NATO?
The US never intended to imminently let Ukraine into NATO. It was just a provocation.