Less than two months before the return of Donald Trump, Ukraine is putting pressure on NATO countries to be invited to join them, but the foreign ministers of the Alliance, who meet on Tuesday in Brussels, should temporize.
“The invitation to Ukraine to join NATO is necessary for our survival,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted this weekend.
“But we have no illusions, there are still skeptical countries,” he admitted.
His Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriï Sybiga, however, intends to reiterate this message on Tuesday evening, during a working dinner with his 32 NATO colleagues in Brussels.
Ukraine wants to approach a possible peace negotiation with Russia from a position of strength and with sufficient security guarantees. And for her, an invitation to join NATO is by far the best guarantee against Russia.
Several Alliance countries, led by the United States, are however reluctant to take this “monumental decision”, as a diplomat in Brussels described it.
U.S. officials privately acknowledge that such an invitation is unlikely to be issued just weeks before the start of the new Trump presidency.
“Such a gesture before the arrival of the new administration would infuriate Trump and he would immediately take the opposite view,” recognizes a European NATO diplomat.
This decision will take time and the subject will only really be raised next year, before the Alliance summit scheduled for the end of June in The Hague, believes another.
But until then, it is essential to think about the guarantees that NATO, or at least some of its members, could give to Ukraine, particularly at a time when the prospect of peace negotiations seems closer, according to this source. .
Donald Trump has promised to make peace in Ukraine “in 24 hours” but without really saying how he intends to do it.
European NATO countries fear being left out of a possible negotiation and several of them are looking for ways to secure a place at the table, NATO diplomats explained. .
Ground troops
| © POOL/AFP/Archives NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels, October 17, 2024 |
And some of these countries do not rule out sending troops to Ukrainian soil, for example to monitor the establishment of a possible ceasefire, these diplomats indicated. However, they immediately point out, this discussion does not take place within NATO, but between European allies. The subject will therefore not be on the agenda on Tuesday or Wednesday, the second day of this ministerial meeting at NATO headquarters.
Reflection is underway in certain European capitals, and the closer the prospect of negotiations gets, the more the discussions will intensify.
Ukraine also intends to strengthen its position on the battlefield before any discussion and intends to request, once again, more weapons and military support from its allies.
“Russia does not give gifts. And we can only guarantee peace by force: the force of our weapons, our diplomacy and our cooperation,” urged Mr. Zelensky in kyiv on Monday, alongside the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Washington announced on Monday additional military aid for Ukraine, valued at $725 million and including missiles and anti-personnel mines, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During a NATO meeting last week in Brussels, Ukraine demanded anti-aircraft defense systems capable of protecting it from the new Russian Orechnik ballistic missile launched by Moscow.
These systems include the American THAAD or the Arrow system developed by the United States and Israel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin fired this experimental hypersonic missile at a Ukrainian city on November 21, touting its destructive power and threatening to use it against Europe in the event of continued Western weapons strikes on Russian territory.