Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the announcement of long-term military aid from the G7 countries in Vilnius on Wednesday, but stressed that it cannot replace his country’s future membership of the Atlantic Alliance.
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On the second day of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital and almost 18 months after the start of the Russian invasion, the G7 members (US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan) presented a plan for Ukraine’s security.
This is intended to help Kiev repel the current Russian offensive and deter Moscow from any “future armed attack” against its neighbor.
While this announcement angered Moscow, it did not assuage Kiev’s disappointment that it had not received a precise timetable for joining the alliance.
“The best guarantee for Ukraine is NATO membership,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after the day before he sharply reproached NATO leaders for their procrastination, which encouraged Moscow to continue sowing “terror” in his country.
“We’re not sitting idly by,” Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told CNN. “We are supplying Ukraine with incredible quantities of weapons and.” […] We stand ready to provide it with long-term security assistance, including of course as it moves towards NATO membership.”
This G7 statement provides a framework for subsequent bilateral agreements between these countries and Kyiv, detailing the arms they will provide.
“We must ensure that credible mechanisms for Ukraine’s security are in place after the end of the war so that history does not repeat itself,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said before the first meeting of the “Ukraine-NATO Council”.
The Norwegian, who has just been reappointed to lead the alliance for a year, underscored the progress made during the two-day summit. “Today we meet as equals and I look forward to the day when we meet as allies,” he told the Ukrainian president.
The latter, who conducted interviews with several leaders, has yet to meet US President Joe Biden. The White House tenant is advocating a similar model to the one agreed with Israel, in which Washington commits to providing significant military assistance over time.
Even before the release of the G7 text, the Kremlin ruled that these “security guarantees” to Ukraine would “undermine Russia’s security.”
“Frustration”
Western donors have already sent tens of billions of euros worth of arms to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invasion.
On Tuesday, Germany announced that it would provide more tanks, Patriot anti-missile missiles and armored vehicles worth an additional 700 million euros.
France has announced it will deploy long-range Scalp missiles to Ukraine, and an 11-member coalition has said it will begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 jets from next month.
But these promises, while necessary for Ukrainian troops, do not correspond to the aspirations of Mr Zelenskyy, who wanted to place Kiev under NATO’s collective defense umbrella.
The leaders of the member countries of this military alliance pledged on the first day of their summit that “the future of Ukraine” lies “in NATO” and shortened the process that Kiev would have to go through to join the organization.
“We can invite Ukraine to join the Alliance if the Allies have decided and the conditions are met,” the final statement said.
A declaration that does not go much further than the commitment made in 2008 regarding future membership. The United States, the first military power, fears being drawn into a possible nuclear conflict with Russia.
“Of course there is frustration on the Ukrainian side and that is understandable,” said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas upon her arrival on the final day of the summit.
On Wednesday evening, Joe Biden will deliver a speech at Vilnius University, in which he will outline Washington’s commitment to defending every square inch of NATO territory.