Ukraine rejects NATO official’s suggestion of giving up land for membership
Mike Brest
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Ukraine has rebuked a NATO official’s suggestion on Tuesday that the country could gain membership into the alliance in exchange for giving up some territory to Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko reiterated the long-held stance by Kyiv that they would not willingly give up territory in any diplomatic talks in response to comments made by NATO chief of staff Stian Jenssen.
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“We have always assumed that the Alliance, like Ukraine, does not trade territories. The conscious or unconscious participation of NATO officials in shaping the narrative regarding the possibility of Ukraine’s giving up its territories plays into the hands of Russia,” Nikolenko said. “Instead, it is in the interests of Euro-Atlantic security to discuss ways to accelerate Ukraine’s victory and full NATO membership.”
He was responding to Jenssen’s remarks, where he reportedly said: “I think a possible solution for Ukraine could be to give up the territory in exchange for NATO membership.”
Ukraine has sought to join the alliance, though acceptance into it would ultimately have to come once the war ends to ensure NATO doesn’t get dragged into the conflict. NATO’s Article 5 requires any alliance member to view an attack on another alliance member as if it was an attack against itself, which is why NATO would be pulled into the war if Ukraine entered the alliance before the war ended.
Their possible ascension into the alliance was a major storyline of NATO’s annual summit last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the alliance’s denial of their immediate entrance “unprecedented and absurd” during the event, while he has also repeatedly said giving up territory is a nonstarter in any attempts to end the war.
“We will liberate our territory with military, diplomatic and all other available means until we reach the legal borders of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president explained. “Ukrainians will never give up their independence. And they will not break from the inside as has happened more than once. Not this time! We will not give up anything.”
Jenssen, for his part, noted that Ukraine “should decide when and under what conditions it wants to negotiate,” and argued, “I’m not saying it has to be exactly like that. But it can be a probable solution.”
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President Joe Biden has expressed his opposition to Ukraine’s ascension to the alliance in the immediate term due to the threat of a much larger conflict.
“That guarantees that we’re in a war — we’re in a third world war,” Biden told reporters during the NATO summit. “It’s not about whether or not they should or shouldn’t join. It’s about when they can join, and they will join NATO.”