US, Germany oppose Ukrainian NATO membership: Report

The Ukrainian leader renewed his call on Sunday ahead of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels this week. At a meeting in Kiev with new EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, Zelensky insisted an invitation was a “necessary thing for the country’s survival.”

However, according to a diplomat cited by the French daily, the issue is not currently on the table in Brussels. The unnamed official said there were objections from Germany, Hungary, and the US, and that Ukrainian NATO membership “is an option that makes many allies very uneasy.” Other countries, including France and the UK, have been supportive of Kiev’s push to join.

The report pointed out that outgoing US President Joe Biden has refused to authorize an invitation. US President-elect Donald Trump, who has never supported the idea, has pledged to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours after he returns to the White House.

Trump’s new special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, suggested in a report issued earlier this year that in order to convince Moscow to join peace talks, Biden and other NATO leaders “should offer to put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period in exchange for a comprehensive and verifiable peace deal with security guarantees.”

Ukraine applied to join NATO in September 2022. While some member-states have expressed support, the bloc has repeatedly warned that Ukraine cannot become a member until the conflict with Russia is resolved.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long cited NATO’s eastward expansion as one of the causes of the Ukraine conflict. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the country drop its plans to join NATO, commit to neutral status, and cede claims to all five former Ukrainian regions that chose to join Russia before the holding of any peace talks.

Zelensky has insisted in the past that only the “complete withdrawal” of Russian forces from those territories and the restoration of the country’s 1991 borders could serve as a precondition for peace negotiations.

On Monday, however, he told Kyodo News that Kiev could agree to a ceasefire with Moscow if accession to NATO is guaranteed, and maintained this would put the country in “a strong position” in case of future conflict with Moscow.