Ukraine will be able to become a NATO member in no earlier than 10-15 years. A high-ranking source in the Alliance told Izvestia, the members of the organization do not currently plan to accept Kiev into their ranks, since they are not ready for such an obvious aggravation with Russia. The alliance tells the Ukrainian leadership that the country needs to bring itself into line with NATO criteria, and convince the allies that it deserves to join the organization.
“The difficulty is not even the unresolved territorial problems, but the fact that no one in NATO, including the United States, intends to launch such a blatant escalation with the Russian Federation,” the NATO source told the newspaper. According to the source, Georgia is ready for membership in the alliance much more than, for example, Montenegro, but it is not accepted into NATO for the same reasons as Ukraine.
“There is an understanding about Ukraine – it is needed as an instrument of pressure on Russia. NATO membership is primarily a message for Moscow, not Kiev,” Associate professor of the Department of Political Theory of MGIMO Kirill Koktysh told Izvestia. “Further contacts between the United States and Ukraine will also depend on the relationship between the United States and Russia. US-Ukraine contacts are what might be called an instrumental relationship,” he added.
So far, providing Kiev with an action plan to prepare for membership remains open. Ukraine expects to receive it in 2022, and is already irritably asking, how many reforms NATO needs for it, the newspaper writes. At the same time, Joe Biden, speaking about the action plan, stressed that the issue depends not only on the United States but also on other countries of the alliance. Ukraine has to convince NATO members, which is not easy, the US president summed up on June 14.
Published at tass.com
