{"id":259317,"date":"2022-10-01T07:22:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T07:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=259317"},"modified":"2022-10-02T07:17:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T07:17:41","slug":"zelensky-pushes-accelerated-application-for-ukraine-nato-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=259317","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky pushes \u2018accelerated\u2019 application for Ukraine NATO membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Isabelle Khurshudyan<\/a> and Emily Rauhala<\/a> \u2013 The Washington Post Sept 30, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Ukraine is applying for \u201caccelerated ascension\u201d into NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, in an apparent answer to Russia\u2019s move to illegally annex four of the country\u2019s partially occupied regions.<\/p>\n

The remarks were more symbolic than practical: The speedy admittance of Ukraine to the alliance would require members to immediately send troops to fight Russia, under collective defense obligations.<\/p>\n

Asked about Ukraine\u2019s application at a news conference in Brussels Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg affirmed that any democracy in Europe can apply to join the alliance, but did not signal Ukraine would be accepted while at war. NATO could already expand by year\u2019s end; Sweden and Finland requested to join in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cA decision on membership of course has to be taken by all 30 allies and we take these decisions by consensus,\u201d he said. \u201cOur focus now is on providing immediate support to Ukraine to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia\u2019s brutal invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim of President Putin is to stop us from supporting Ukraine,\u201d he added. \u201cBut he will not succeed in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine has long sought NATO membership, but Zelensky conceded in March that Ukraine had to accept that it was not going to be accepted into the Western military alliance, despite receiving security assistance from countries in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe facto, we have already made our way to NATO,\u201d Zelensky said in a Telegram statement Friday. \u201cDe facto, we have already proven compatibility with Alliance standards. They are real for Ukraine \u2014 real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction. We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

In practice, the chances of Ukraine joining NATO have only grown slimmer in the course of the Russian invasion. Member countries, including the United States, have drawn clear lines: They arm Ukraine, but they don\u2019t have their own troops on the ground out of concern for triggering a World War<\/p>\n

Just an hour before Zelensky\u2019s announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow\u2019s illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, which Russian forces have partially occupied. At the time of Putin\u2019s speech, Zelensky was meeting with his National Security Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no negotiations with Russia while Putin is the president,\u201d Andriy Yermak, Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff, said on Telegram. \u201cWe are moving forward. To victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoltenberg on Friday blasted Russia\u2019s illegal annexation of four regions in Ukraine, calling it the most serious escalation of the war and a pivotal moment in the conflict.<\/p>\n

Stoltenberg said Putin\u2019s latest move was the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War and amounted to \u201can area roughly the size of Portugal, illegally seized at gunpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis land grab is illegal and illegitimate. NATO allies do not and will not recognize any of this territory as part of Russia,\u201d he added. \u201cWe call on all states to reject Russia\u2019s blatant attempts at territorial conquest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine is expected to at least have some support for its NATO bid. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on Twitter<\/a> that, \u201cUkraine\u2019s Baltic friends fully support welcoming Ukraine into NATO as soon as possible. Ukraine\u2019s inspirational bravery can only strengthen our alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine has responded to Russia\u2019s annexation of the Donbass republics with an \u201caccelerated\u201d bid to join NATO. Given that Kiev is already in conflict, this unlikely to be readily accepted. However, it wont be rejected either. Instead, NATO is likely to throw its full military weight behind helping Ukraine, short of an actual declaration of war on Russia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259319,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259317\/revisions\/259319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}