Reuters NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Zelensky
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 05:00
Kysia Hekster & Chiem Balduk
European Union correspondent & foreign editor
Kysia Hekster & Chiem Balduk
European Union correspondent & foreign editor
“NATO membership is a matter of life or death for us,” says Oleksandr Holopetelyuk in combat gear from Bachmoet via video link. “We have American tanks here, we’ve been using them for months and we know them inside out.” Perhaps better than the NATO allies themselves. “They practice in peace, we of necessity in war.”
The NATO summit begins today in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Ukraine is the main topic of conversation there; President Zelensky expects a “very clear signal” about possible membership.
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Holopetelyuk fights with an artillery unit and owns Pizza Veterano in Odesa. He sees his employees, war veterans, as family. “It’s a socio-economic project,” he says. Visitors who want to support veterans can donate pizzas to veterans. Pizzeria Veterano, a chain, is a household name in Ukraine.
The restaurant in Odesa has only just opened, 20-year-old Anton Zhelunitsyn is there to take orders. He also hopes for NATO membership “because of the guarantees of security”. He refers to article 5 of the NATO charter: an attack on one of the allies is seen as an attack on all.
Article 5 is also the main reason why countries that are already members are very reluctant to include Ukraine. The West could find itself in a head-to-head confrontation with the Russians.
Zhelunitsyn, himself just back from the front, is realistic about his country’s chances of getting the green light for accession in Vilnius. “Not while there’s war.”
Sky-high expectations in Kyiv
From the government offices in Kyiv, the NATO summit in Vilnius is viewed with high expectations. President Zelensky expects a “very clear signal” that Ukraine will join the military alliance. His adviser Michajlo Podoljak even says that this summit is more important than “all NATO summits of the past fifteen years put together”.
“I hope that this sense of urgency is also felt in Vilnius,” Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said in a conversation with NOS. As Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, she is working full-time on Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO. For her, the summit is a success if a clear commitment is made to Ukraine.
AFPOlha Stefanishyna at a conference in Slovakia in May
NATO membership is out of the question as long as the war continues. That is why Stephanishyna sets her sights on the end of the Russian offensive war. Then Ukraine could become a member, but now the country could already prepare. The wish for the NATO summit is therefore that Ukraine will be formally invited to NATO, as was the case last year with Sweden and Finland happened.
“That is only a first step in a long process, but then we can get started with that process,” says the deputy prime minister. An invitation would also provide a ‘moral boost’ for the Ukrainians to continue fighting, she thinks. At the same time, the road from an invitation to actual membership is a long one. For example, President Erdogan of Turkey only agreed to Sweden’s accession yesterday after much resistance.
Stefanishyna does not comment on how promising her wish for a NATO invitation is. “Talks are still in full swing, but it is clear that all member states are well aware of the importance of a rapprochement between NATO and Ukraine.” Hungary is well known resistsbut the Americans also say that Ukraine is not yet ready for NATO membership.
The long road to Ukrainian NATO membership
Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine already sought rapprochement with NATO. In 2008, Kyiv applied for NATO membership. At a summit in Bucharest it was only promised that Ukraine, like Georgia, could eventually become a member. That promise led to it according to analysts, Moscow turned its back on the West and became more aggressive.
Due to the Russian war in eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine was shelved. As fears of a Russian invasion mounted in 2021, President Zelensky again made frantic efforts to bring the subject back to the table, but the response in the West was lukewarm. Last year Kyiv served officially apply for ‘accelerated membership’.
As the allies gather, the Ukrainians try to drive the Russians off their land. The counter-offensive has now lasted more than a month, and little progress has been made.
According to Oleksandr Holopeliuk, things have been going well at Bachmoet in recent days, partly due to the weapons supplied by the NATO countries. “But we need more, air defense and fighter jets, which are vital right now.”
Anton Zhelunitsyn agrees. “I have seen with my own eyes how much blood and lives it takes to get my country back. It’s hard to say when it will all be over, but NATO must continue to help us.”
2023-07-11 03:00:01
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