Brussels, 29 April. – (beraking latest news) – “The right place for Ukraine is in NATO. Ukraine will become a member of NATO. The work we are undertaking now puts you on an irreversible path towards NATO membership.” This was reiterated by the general secretary of the Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg, yesterday in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. “The allies – he added – have already agreed to plan a greater role for NATO in coordinating security assistance and training for Ukraine. I believe that we also need an important multi-year financial commitment, to sustain our support and demonstrate that our support for Ukraine is not short-term and ad hoc, but long-term and predictable, Moscow must understand that it cannot win and cannot wait for us to get tired,” Stoltenberg said.
“I truly believe that Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO and therefore I am working hard to ensure that Ukraine becomes a member of this alliance.” But “to make that decision we need all allies to agree. We need consensus, not majority, actually agreement of 32 allies. I don’t expect to have that agreement by the July summit,” he said. then reiterated.
“I really hope – he continued – that we will be able to demonstrate that we are bringing Ukraine closer to membership, and that the day will come as soon as possible when we will have Ukraine as a full member. In the meantime, we should ensure that Ukraine becomes the interoperable as possible, that Ukraine is fully compliant with all NATO standards”, so that “when the political conditions are right, Ukraine will immediately become a member”. “Rest assured, we are working hard,” he continued, “we have made some important decisions in Vilnius, where we have eliminated what we call the accession action plan, transforming the path to accession from a two-step process to a at one stage, in which the NATO-Ukraine Council was created. We also agreed on a major interoperability program, ensuring that, once the political conditions are met, Ukraine can immediately become a member” of the Alliance, he explained.
The NATO allies, Stoltenberg later acknowledged, “did not keep what they promised” to Ukraine. “The United States has gone months without agreeing on a package for Ukraine, and European allies have failed to deliver promised quantities of munitions.”
“This had serious consequences on the battlefield – he continued – the lack of ammunition allowed the Russians to advance”. “The lack of an air defense line made it possible for more Russian missiles to hit the targets – he said again – the lack of ‘long-range shooting’ capabilities allowed the Russians to concentrate more forces. Now we see the consequences. It is extremely important that in the last two weeks we have seen some very important changes: the big announcement of the United States of 61 billion dollars is very significant; the United Kingdom announced its largest package ever, including air defenses and million rounds of ammunition; many more allies are coming forward with different types of announcements. Now our responsibility is to ensure that these announcements turn into actual deliveries, physical deliveries or weapons and ammunition, as soon as possible.”
“The commander of US forces in Europe is responsible for this logistical work – he continued – the practical implementation of the delivery of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine. I am in regular contact with him and he is very aware of the urgency: they do everything as possible to make sure that announcements turn into deliveries as quickly as possible, because time counts, every day counts. We have to be honest and we have to realize that, when we don’t deliver, when we delay supplies, it’s a matter of life and death. , which has real consequences. We don’t get the results we should, it’s the Ukrainians who pay the price,” he stressed again.
For Stoltenberg, ”the situation is difficult, but it is not too late for Ukraine to prevail” over Russia. The general secretary then underlined that ”it is important to return to Kiev again and meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky”.
On ‘X’ Stoltenberg then promised that ”further support is on the way”. Furthermore, ”NATO is making a long-term commitment, putting Ukraine on an irreversible path towards the Alliance,” he wrote in a post.
“It could become a moment of strength for the Alliance, or not. This is where it will be decided whether an enemy of the Alliance will be able to prohibit the strengthening of NATO”, the words of Ukrainian president Zelensky, alongside Stoltenberg, with the thought at the Alliance summit scheduled for July in Washington. Ukraine, he insisted, “deserves to be invited to NATO”.
“We deserve it for our strength, our defense of common values and our importance for the future of the entire Euro-Atlantic community,” Zelensky insisted in statements released by the presidency.
“Rapid supplies” of weapons “literally mean stabilization of the front lines” because Russia “is preparing for a further offensive” Zelensky then said, underlines the Ukrainian presidency, which noted how Russia is trying to exploit the situation while the Ukraine awaits supplies from partners and continues the conflict that began with the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
The Ukrainian leader made explicit reference to “155 caliber artillery, long-range weapons, area defense systems and first of all Patriot systems” ammunition to achieve the goal of “destroying Russia’s terrorist ambitions”. “The Russian army is preparing for further offensive action – he insisted in the statements released by the presidency – And together with the allies we must stop the Russian offensive”.
“Ukraine and NATO have reached the highest level in relations since our independence, but not yet the highest possible,” he later wrote on X after the meeting. “This is exactly what we talked about with Stoltenberg,” he adds. “We also talked about countering Russian aggression, further cooperation between Ukraine and NATO and ways to truly unite our efforts.” Zelensky then concluded by thanking Stoltenberg for “the support for Ukraine” and for “this visit”.
In the evening the Ukrainian president then returned to Patriot’s request. “Regular Russian missile attacks, as well as the occupier’s efforts to destroy as many Ukrainian positions as possible, can be stopped. And Russian offensive plans can be foiled,” he wrote, reporting in X that “several people were killed in Odessa and many were injured” in a missile raid, while Kharkiv was hit by an air strike. But to stop Russia, he added, “the Ukrainian force must be backed by sufficient support from partners: Patriots must arrive in Ukraine now and weapons with sufficient range to destroy the Russians.”