Help is "more important"

Kiev wants to join NATO: not Rutte’s first priority

Mark Rutte

(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

Ukraine cannot hope to be invited to join NATO any time soon. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that military support was "more important" than the debate about when Ukraine should be offered NATO membership. 

Ukraine, which is under attack from Russia, had previously made it clear that it would not accept any security guarantees other than NATO membership. Russia would see NATO membership for Ukraine as a threat.

Rutte wants more weapons for Ukraine
Rutte emphasized that the alliance was working on building a bridge to membership for Ukraine. The most urgent problem, however, was to provide Kiev with more weapons to fend off the Russian armed forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi should be able to conduct peace talks from "a position of strength". "That is the number one priority for me now," said Rutte. According to insiders, there are no signs of the necessary consensus among the 32 NATO members for Ukraine's membership.

Volodymyr Selenskyj

(Bild: AFP)

Rutte: Putin has no interest in peace
Rutte emphasized that the NATO allies must increase their military support for Ukraine. "We will all have to do more. The stronger our military support for Ukraine is now, the stronger its position will be at the negotiating table," Rutte told journalists at NATO headquarters.

Russian President Vladimir "Putin is not interested in peace", added the NATO chief. "He is continuing the advance and trying to conquer more territory. He believes that he can break Ukraine's resolve and our will, but he is wrong," emphasized Rutte. The new Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha is expected to hold his first talks with his colleagues from NATO countries in Brussels on Tuesday.

Kiev recalls Budapest Memorandum
On the day of the NATO meeting, the Foreign Ministry in Kiev recalled the bad experiences with the almost 30-year-old Budapest Memorandum. "We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine and a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other countries is full Ukrainian membership of NATO," the statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry read. "Based on the bitter experience with the Budapest Memorandum, we will accept no alternatives, no imitation and no substitute for full NATO membership for Ukraine."

In 1994, Ukraine surrendered the Soviet nuclear weapons on its territory; in return, the nuclear powers USA, Russia and Great Britain promised it non-binding security. Moscow broke the agreement with its attack on Ukraine in 2014 and the large-scale invasion from 2022, explained the Foreign Ministry in Kiev.

Kremlin considers NATO membership a "threat"
 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the other hand, emphasized that NATO membership for Ukraine "absolutely contradicts our idea of indivisible security". "Therefore, such a decision would be potentially unacceptable for us, as it would pose a threat to us. The possible inclusion of Kiev in the Western defense alliance was one of the reasons for war for Moscow, explained the spokesman for the Russian presidential office in Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky had demanded an invitation to join the alliance in order to secure the parts of the country controlled by Kiev against Russia. Kiev is also urging the allies to supply defense systems against the new Russian hypersonic weapon Oreshnik.