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Ukraine’s possible NATO membership was one of the reasons Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin (70) used to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After the North Atlantic Pact Summit in Vilnius, Putin apparently realized that he could not prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. His muted response reflects the bitter defeat for the original Russian war targets.
Putin’s stated demands prior to the invasion had been to prevent NATO expansion and to push the Western military alliance back from Russia’s borders. Finland is now a NATO member, Sweden is submitting the accession protocol – and Ukraine’s accession is probably only a matter of time. “Putin wanted less NATO,” said Jens Stoltenberg, 64, secretary general of the Western military alliance. Now “he gets more NATO”.
Putin must scale back war targets
Putin’s reaction to Ukraine’s possible entry into the military alliance is correspondingly milder today. “I’m not sure if this will increase the security of Ukraine itself and make the world much more vulnerable in general,” Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted the head of state as saying after the NATO summit on Thursday.
Putin recalled his words before the start of the war: “As for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, we said it posed a security threat to Russia.” This threat no longer seems existential. NATO membership will not improve Ukraine’s security, Putin stressed, but rather lead to additional tensions on the international stage.
“A total defeat for Russia’s pre-war objectives”
The renowned think tank Institute for the Study of War analyzed the NATO summit as a “comprehensive defeat for Russia’s pre-war objectives”.
Also, “Russia’s muted responses to the NATO summit did not hide how much the Russian invasion has delayed the goals for which the Kremlin reportedly went to war.”
Join Kiev after the end of the war?
The alliance partners do not yet want to determine when Ukraine will join NATO. In Vilnius, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (69) was convinced that Kiev’s accession would probably come after the end of the Russian offensive war.
There is “no doubt,” Austin said, that Ukraine will join NATO in time. (kes)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
