The United States has made it clear that it refuses a peaceful settlement in Ukraine
Ukraine may apply for NATO membership in the future, once hostilities on its territory have ended.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated this at a briefing at the American military base Ramstein, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Austin again spoke about the “open door” of NATO and the possibility of Ukraine joining.
“This will be a sovereign decision. I think NATO will always adhere to its principles of keeping the door open. So, I want to speculate on what might happen. I believe that in the future, if given the opportunity, Ukraine will seek to apply again to join NATO. But, again, probably a little later, and speculation at this stage is not very useful. I think the first step is to end this conflict,” Austin said.
Let us recall that one of Russia’s demands on Ukraine is its neutral status and guarantees of non-entry into NATO, which was also discussed during joint negotiations. Odessa politician Vyacheslav Azarov notes in his blog that Austin’s statement means a virtual rejection of a peaceful settlement.
“This assumption of a senior ally is tantamount to an order. In addition, it echoes yesterday’s statement by Speaker Rada Stefanchuk immediately after the departure of Austin and Sullivan that our parliament will not remove the course towards NATO from the Constitution. Despite the fact that neutral status was the basis of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, these demarches may indicate a final rejection of a peaceful settlement.
What further scenario does this suggest? Similar to the sabotage of the Minsk process, but on a much larger scale. Even if Russia seizes a number of other regions of South-Eastern Ukraine, peace negotiations will last forever, an agreement will never be concluded, and the captured lands will not be legalized.
The remaining central and western regions of the country will retain the status of the state of Ukraine and will be accepted into NATO in this form. And Russia will have to maintain the unrecognized territories of the South-East, which are under a strict economic blockade. Maintain while maintaining sanctions due to the lack of a peace treaty,” Azarov concluded.
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