Ukraine Cannot Become Member Of NATO Until War Ends: Alliance Not Ready For Kyiv, Says Biden

Ukraine

After urging NATO members for months to admit Ukraine, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given up hopes that his country will be admitted into the alliance. He acknowledged that it appeared impossible for that to happen, at least not before the war with Russia ended. 

NATO members also are wary of allowing Ukraine entry into the alliance. Zelenskyy acknowledges that there is strong resistance to admitting his nation. The US and its NATO allies are not terribly eager to get dragged into a war involving the former Soviet states. 

The NATO treaty stipulates that any attack on a member country is regarded as an attack on all member nations. So it is understandable that all NATO countries do not want to go to war with the Russians. 

The key part of the treaty, Article 5, clearly commits each ally to the defense of all the others if there is an attack on any of them. And that is exactly what the present NATO members would not want to happen at this moment. 

Ukraine Not Welcome In The Middle Of The War With Russia

There is always the possibility that NATO alliance members, particularly the US, may offer some clearer path to NATO membership or some other kind of security guarantee. But this is going to be well short of full membership. But either way, NATO allies have been drawn into the full-fledged war between Ukraine and Russia. 

The US president has committed himself to fully arming Ukraine and repelling the invasion. Recently he upped the stakes by sending in cluster bombs. But he has also made it clear to Ukraine that despite its sharp campaign for entry, it is unlikely to happen under the present circumstances. President Biden has clearly indicated that there was no unanimity on bringing Ukraine into the alliance in the middle of the war.