Even as NATO leaders like US President Joe Biden and the bloc’s outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg keep claiming that the decision about Ukraine’s NATO membership has de facto been made, the bloc does not really want Kiev to actually join, DePetris writes in his op-ed in Newsweek.
NATO may be quite happy to supply Ukraine with weapons to inflict damage upon Russia, but becoming involved in a direct conflict “with a nuclear-armed Russia on behalf of Ukraine is not in the cards,” he notes.
“Ukraine has been waiting on NATO membership for a long time. It will continue to wait, likely in perpetuity, regardless of the sweet-nothings Western leaders whisper in Zelensky's ear,” DePetris predicts.
Ukraine’s relinquishing plans to join NATO remains one of the key elements of all peace proposals presented by Russia since the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in February 2022.
Despite this, the powers that be in Kiev keep hoping to worm their way into the bloc despite the fact that it may severely destabilize the security situation in the region.