U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that Ukraine will eventually become a member of NATO at a reception celebrating the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels.
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday vowed that Ukraine will eventually join NATO, repeating a provocative promise that the alliance first made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008.
‘Ukraine will become a member of NATO’, Blinken said in Brussels alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. NATO foreign ministers met in the Belgium capital to prepare for a NATO summit that will be held in Washington this July.
‘Our purpose of the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership and to create a clear pathway for Ukraine moving forward. We’ve done a lot of work on that over the last couple of days here in Brussels, a lot more work to be done between now and the summit, but we will see, I think, at the summit very strong support for Ukraine going forward and its relationship with NATO’, Blinken said.
Since the invasion was launched, NATO has doubled down on its promise to admit Ukraine eventually, but no clear timeline or assurances have been given since bringing Kiev in now would put the alliance in a direct war with Russia.
‘Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face’, he wrote”. -Dave DeCamp
Despite the fact that Russia would never permit Ukraine to become a member of NATO, given the way things are going, perhaps the greater concern for the allied countries remains whether there will even be a Ukraine by the time the war ends.