During the NATO summit it was clear to all parties that Ukraine’s membership was impossible as long as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia remained in an active phase.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Jens Stoltenberg
Sputnik Brazil Former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has argued that Wendy’s (an American fast food chain) ran an ad starring actress Clara Peller in 1984. The premise of the ad was to order a competitor’s hamburger and receive a bun that had almost nothing in it. Ritter says that upon examining the hamburger, Peller looks over angrily and says, “Where’s the meat?”
After the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Vilnius a twoday event on July 1112 one could feel, according to the expert, that Clara Peller’s mind was focused on the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, during he reflected on the results of the event and compared them to the expectations that existed before the summit. “I don’t know how to say ‘Where’s the beef’ in Ukrainian, but something like that must have crossed the mind of the Ukrainian President as he examined the large ‘nothing hamburger’ that NATO had supplied him with .”
The Vilnius summit was intended to demonstrate the Alliance’s unity and determination in the face of Russia’s challenges and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Before the summit, there was much discussion about Ukraine’s prospects for NATO membership. However, it was clear to all parties that Ukraine’s membership was impossible while the conflict between Ukraine and Russia was in an active phase, if only because, according to Article 5 of the NATO Charter, the alliance would immediately go to war with Russia, which had a good chance of going nuclear.
The working premise of the summit was that NATO would allow Ukraine to launch a massive counteroffensive aimed at breaching Russian defenses and entering the Sea of Azov, thereby severing the land bridge between Crimea and Russia Negotiations to force agreement that ends the conflict, says the expert. At this point, NATO, having “frozen” the conflict on terms unfavorable to Russia, would invite Ukraine to join, thereby glossing over Ukraine’s benefits from Article 5 safeguards, while effectively banning all future operations. Russian offensives.
Ritter claims that in the weeks leading up to the summit, Ukraine was desperately trying to do its part, sending its newly constituted NATOtrained and equipped assault brigades against prepared Russian defenses in actions reminiscent of the infamous “Attack of the Light Brigade” reminded In comparison, the epitome of military planning and implementation. With much of NATOsupplied armament, including the muchvaunted Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, destroyed or damaged without ever reaching key Russian defensive positions, and with an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian casualties, the Ukrainian counteroffensive failed. Rather than hand his NATO allies a decisive Ukrainian victory, Zelenskyi confronted his former allies with the stark reality that not only was the conflict with Russia not going to end anytime soon, but with a growing realization that it would if it were ending so quickly would be a decisive military victory for Russia.
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Faced with this reality, NATO sought to tone down expectations of Ukraine’s membership. Rather than present Ukraine with a concrete roadmap for membership, NATO said it would invite Ukraine if “conditions are met,” including an end to the conflict with Russia. As a consolation prize, NATO offered the establishment of a NATOUkraine Council “to promote Ukraine’s political dialogue, engagement, cooperation and EuroAtlantic aspirations for NATO membership” and pledged “our support for as long as needed.” to continue”.
“For Zelensky, those words ring hollow in the face of the deteriorating situation on a battlefield largely shaped by past NATO support. And the harsh reality of the battlefield emerges as Zelensky leaves Vilnius with little more than assurances that NATO will continue to support Ukraine.” “But all that support has accomplished is to sentence hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers to death and at the same time to uncover the arsenals and vaults of Ukraine’s NATO partners,” the expert said.
According to Ritter, Zelenskyy should also reflect on the words of President Joe Biden, who in an interview with CNN noted that Ukraine “is not ready to join NATO”, adding that such a dialogue is “premature” while the Ukraine is in the middle of a conflict. Biden also said he did not believe “there is unanimity in NATO on whether or not Ukraine should join the Atlantic Alliance family now and that the process could only take place after a peace agreement with Russia comes into force is”.
However, in order to achieve a peace that would create favorable conditions for Ukraine to join NATO, Ukraine first had to defeat the Russian army on the battlefield. To do that, NATO would have to radically change the way it calculates current levels of military aid, if only because the current way of thinking just didn’t work. But NATO is neither inclined nor able to change this wording, says the expert. “His goal was never to defend Ukraine, but to defeat Russia, a cause he is ready to pursue to the last Ukrainian.”
“Zelensky came to Vilnius as customers flock to fastfood restaurants, full of anticipation of the delicious hamburger they will order and eat, only to find themselves in the role of Clara Peller desperately screaming, ‘Where is that Meat?'”
According to Ritter, this is not the role that Zelenskyy wanted or expected to play at the Vilnius summit. For over 500 days, he was cast as the modernday incarnation of Winston Churchill, a heroic figure standing up to the forces of evil. But Zelensky operates in the theater of the absurd, where perception trumps reality, until reality hits hard and the script changes. The narrative changed, and Ukraine went from being a main character to being part of the supporting cast.
“Politician Zelenskyi must be disappointed by this turn of events. But the actor Zelenskyy just looks at the words others have written to him, takes the cue and reads them out loud: ‘Where’s the beef?’”
For the expert, the answer doesn’t matter. “There is no problem. It’s just a script. And Zelensky is just an actor playing his part in the tragic opera that has become the RussoUkrainian conflict, watching helplessly as his nation and people are sacrificed in the name of a dysfunctional alliance of NATO, theirs Mission proclaimed in peace, but whose only product is war,” he said.