NATO Summit.. Consolation prizes for Ukraine and indications of the length of the war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dissatisfaction with the postponement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, which began its work in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, yesterday, Tuesday, was clear, and is still ongoing, regarding the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, but despite the division on this issue, agreement prevails. A European American has supported Ukraine for a long time by various financial and military means.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the NATO summit provided general features for the future of the ongoing war, 500 days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Zelensky’s frustration with NATO keeping his country away from his doorstep came after realizing that NATO had not agreed on a formula that would reassure him about a specific date for negotiating membership. Even before arriving in Lithuania, he tweeted that the Ukrainians had received “some ominous signals”.
Apparently, under American and German pressure and weight, the NATO leaders decided not to resolve the debates regarding setting a timetable for opening the admission negotiations in NATO. “It is unprecedented and absurd that no time frame has been set for the invitation or for Ukraine’s membership,” Zelensky wrote harshly. He went further, saying: “For Russia, this is a motive for continuing its terrorism.”
Under American and German pressure and weight, NATO leaders decided not to resolve the debates regarding setting a timetable for opening negotiations for admission to NATO.
All this came after the Atlantic statement: “We will be able to send an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when the allies agree and the requirements are met.”
Perhaps the reasons for the resentment of Kiev and other countries supporting it in the alliance, especially the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, for the rubber language used, is their sense that any negotiations to stop the war in Ukraine with the Russian side must be preceded by “giving Ukraine the certainty that the final security guarantee is NATO membership.” Once the war is over.”
According to Callas, the issue can be understood briefly, given that setting a date for Ukraine’s membership when the war stops is “the only recipe for lasting peace” (originally, the alliance does not include a country that is experiencing war or armed conflict).
President Joe Badin, despite considering that the volume of Western aid promises “shows to Moscow that time is not in its favour,” confirmed in an interview with CNN that he believed that Ukraine “is not yet ready for NATO membership,” adding that that membership “requires that the country fulfill With all qualifications, from democratization to an integrated set of issues. Biden hinted at granting Ukraine a privileged position in terms of aid, close to that of the Israeli occupation state in the relationship with Washington.
In one way or another, it is understood from the words of the Americans that the country they helped militarily and financially with more than 50 billion euros equally with the European Union (until the end of last May) has many miles to meet the requirements of NATO membership, and even the institutions of the European Union.
In the best case, with signs of the continuation of the war in Ukraine, it remains for the Ukrainians, and their allies in the Baltic states and eastern Europe, with the exception of Hungary, until the NATO summit in Washington next year, to convince the leaders of the alliance that they “deserve” to proceed towards membership negotiations.
Consolation prizes worry Moscow
Nevertheless, the Vilnius Atlantic summit offered Ukraine something of a consolation prize, in the form of a large aid package to bolster its defenses and bring them closer to NATO standards.
According to some Western diplomatic sources, the summit reassured the “camp of pro-Ukraine” that long-term security guarantees for Ukraine would be provided by the “Big Seven” countries. In addition, the establishment of the “NATO-Ukraine Council” came as an additional consolation prize, as it includes the possibility of Kiev inviting the alliance to meet for talks and consultations in crises whenever it wants to.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg considered that the talk about Ukraine’s membership in the alliance is progress and important. “There has never been a stronger signal to Ukraine than NATO, both in political message and in practical support,” he said. And a little softened Zelensky’s bitterness, given that the NATO countries believe that “Ukraine has already fulfilled many requirements, so that it does not need much on the track,” that is, the implementation of the so-called “Membership Action Plan.” It mainly relates to changes in the structures of the armaments system, the construction of the army and its transition from the Soviet system to the Western one, in addition to completing the separation of powers and democratization at the same level as the West, or at least the Atlantic Baltic countries, Poland and Romania.
In the same context, and with the early hours of the morning of the last day of the NATO summit (today, Wednesday), statements and news began to intensify about the volume of Western aid to Ukraine. In addition to Britain sending modern and long-range missiles, France announced that it had already started shipping French missiles with a range of up to 250 kilometers, in addition to that Berlin also raised the caliber of its statements about military aid. In addition to the agreement to train Ukrainian pilots on the American F-16.
In any case, despite criticism of Western efforts in Ukraine and the disappointments of Ukrainian President Zelensky, the Western “consolation prizes”, in arms and money, were not underestimated by the Russian leadership. The Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, went on Tuesday to consider NATO aid to Ukraine as “sheer madness” and that this expresses that the road is deadlocked, and brings a third world war closer.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia might have to use “similar” weapons if the United States supplied Ukraine with cluster bombs.
Simply put, these moves and statements indicate that the Ukrainian theater, and perhaps other theaters related to it, are on the verge of more confrontations that indicate that the war is not on its way to stopping, at least in the foreseeable future.
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2023-07-12 10:22:38