U.S. President Joe Biden may raise the status of Ukraine's application for NATO membership before the end of his presidential term, which expires in January. In exchange for this, Ukraine should make territorial concessions.
This is reported by the Financial Times with reference to an unnamed official.
During his trip to Europe, Biden will chair a meeting of Ukraine and its allies in Germany on October 12.
"A Western official briefed on Zelenskyy’s talks in Washington said there were tentative signs that Biden might agree to advance the status of Ukraine’s Nato membership bid before he leaves office in January," writes the FT.
The publication reminded that membership in NATO remains the main goal of Ukraine. Although now the members of the Alliance consider Ukraine's accession impossible without a long-term ceasefire and a clear line where NATO's mandate would end. A model of West Germany's membership in the Alliance is proposed, which lasted more than three decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification with the east of the country. But even such a model meets resistance.
The publication emphasizes that Volodymyr Zelenskyy's latest visit to the U.S. did not achieve its goals — Kyiv did not receive consent for strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against targets deep in the territory with Western weapons. Also, in Washington, they treated the "victory plan" coolly, the content of which is not publicly disclosed.
We will remind, the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olha Stefanishyna said that Ukraine will be able to join NATO as a sovereign country within the borders of 1991. Other options were not discussed.
U.S. Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller believes that Ukraine will be able to become a member of NATO only after the end of the war. Responding to a question about the timetable for Ukraine's entry into the Alliance after the recent statement by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Miller emphasized that " Nothing has changed regarding the approval of the timetable. It still depends on the end of the war."
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