Ukraine’s accession: Nine NATO countries apply pressure – a little

Ukraine applied for fast-track NATO membership on Friday. Two days later, nine NATO countries positioned themselves in a joint statement calling for the inclusion of Ukraine — but without specifying a date.

Nine European NATO countries have voted in favor of Ukraine joining the military alliance. They called on the remaining 21 member states to “significantly” increase their military aid to the stricken country, according to a short joint statement. They were signed by the heads of state and government of the three Baltic states: Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Russia must immediately withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territories.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky applied for his country’s accelerated accession to NATO. He was responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signing on Friday of Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories.

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The Ukrainian NATO application is currently unlikely to succeed, as one of the conditions is that the applicant must have no active border conflicts. In addition, NATO wants to avoid a direct conflict with Russia, which is why the US and Germany are currently skeptical about Ukrainian accession.

Foreign Minister Annalena Berbach said on Friday: “We continue to support Ukraine’s right to self-defense, including with heavy weapons, but we are doing everything we can to ensure that other countries and NATO are not drawn into this war.” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the accession process should be restarted at another time.

A joint statement by nine Eastern and Southeast European members said they strongly supported the outcome of the 2008 NATO summit.At the time, summit participants welcomed membership bids by Ukraine and Georgia, but did not set a timetable for joining. The current statement by the nine NATO countries also does not specify a deadline.