[Text/Observer.com Liu Chenghui] Ukraine’s plan to join NATO is stuck in “Rashomon”. On June 25, local time, Igor Zhovkva, deputy director of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Ukraine had accepted the reality that it could not join NATO and would not take any further steps to this end. But he said that Ukraine still hopes to have a say in NATO policies.
It is worth mentioning that just three days before Zhovkva made these remarks (22nd), Ukrainian presidential adviser Arestovich claimed that Ukraine was already a "de facto" member of NATO and that NATO had promised to help Ukraine "wins" conflict with Russia.
"Russia Today": Zelensky's adviser said that he will no longer seek to become a member of NATO.
According to "Russia Today", Zovvac made this statement in an exclusive interview with the British " Financial Times ". Next week, NATO will hold a two-day summit in Madrid, Spain, and unveil a new strategic concept document for the next decade. Zovvak said in this regard that the Zelensky government hopes that NATO can recognize Ukraine as "the cornerstone of European security" and reaffirm their partnership with Ukraine.
However, Zovvac admitted that Ukraine will not be able to join NATO in the short term and will not continue to advance its agenda to join NATO.
"NATO members have lived up to our expectations. In this regard, we will not do anything else."
Zhovvac said he wanted NATO to describe the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the new strategic concept and remove any mention of Russia It’s about “partners” and “don’t be shy” to include anti-Russian text.
"We hope that NATO's new strategic concept will issue a harsher and more serious warning to Russian 'aggressors'." He said.
Deputy Director of the Office of the President of Ukraine Igor Zovkva (Utong News Agency )
As early as 2019, Ukraine wrote "commitment to joining NATO" into its constitution. Before and after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out, Ukraine repeatedly made statements about joining NATO.
In late March this year, Ukrainian President Zelensky complained to CNN that if Ukraine had joined NATO, this conflict would not have broken out. He also publicly revealed that NATO had clearly rejected Ukraine's accession in private, but in public it had "opened the door" to Ukraine. In April, he also revealed that Ukraine was ready to negotiate with Russia on its refusal to join NATO and the status of Crimea.
At the Davos Economic Forum held in late May, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba lambasted NATO for "staying aside", "weak" and "doing nothing". He called the conflict a test and "always can Tear off some masks”.
Just this week (22nd), Zelensky’s adviser Arestovich admitted in an interview with Russian journalist Mark Feygin that he had doubts about whether NATO or the EU were prepared to accept Ukraine.
But he thinks this is not important. Ukraine is already a "de facto member" of NATO. According to him, more than 50 countries in the Contact Group on Ukraine under the leadership of the United States have promised Ukraine that they will "never, never" let Ukraine lose this war.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg told the Spanish newspaper El Pais on the 25th that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to end in negotiations, but before that, NATO's responsibility is to "provide Ukraine with as strong a response as possible." military and economic support” and push for severe sanctions against Russia.
On the other hand, Ukraine, which has no hope of joining NATO, was approved to become an EU candidate country on the 23rd. However, considering that candidate countries still have a long way to go before becoming regular, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama believes that "(Ukraine obtains) candidate status is a good thing", but given that Albania has waited for 8 years, he suggested that " Ukrainians don’t have too many illusions about quick EU membership.”
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov html said on the 224th that the actions of the EU and NATO were essentially equivalent to establishing a "war alliance" against Russia. It's just that the EU is not a military organization like NATO, so Ukraine's joining the EU does not pose a threat to Russia.However, Lavrov emphasized that Russia suspects that the "Russian fear" within the EU will not disappear quickly, so Russia will pay close attention to all the "practical steps" taken by the EU and its candidate countries.
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