Summary
Ukraine is pushing for NATO membership, proposing that only areas free from Russian occupation join initially. President Zelenskyy argues this could deter further Russian aggression and facilitate peace talks.
However, key NATO members, including Germany, oppose the idea, fearing it could escalate the conflict. France, Poland, and the Baltic states are more open to partial membership, while former NATO chief Stoltenberg supports fast-tracking the process.
NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte prioritizes arming Ukraine over membership discussions.
U.S. policy remains uncertain, especially with President-elect Trump reportedly skeptical of Ukraine’s accession.
“Hard to predict the Trump factor” is absurd. They need to be approved for admission before January 20th.
As inventive as Zelenskyy’s solution is, I don’t think you can ignore borders like that and ask the international community to recognize a separate, untouchable region that’s somehow distinct from the rest of Ukraine. I’m all for less restrictions on how Ukraine fights back, but I don’t have much faith this Incremental approach to joining NATO will work. I feel like if NATO wanted to or had the capacity to waive the part about joining while involved in conflict, we would have already seen something.
Zelensky isn’t really proposing for NATO to admit only part of Ukraine. He’s suggesting the existing recognized borders be admitted, but only unoccupied parts of Ukraine fall under article 5 for now. That would prevent Russia from occupying any more land and hopefully bring them to a negotiating table to peacefully return the occupied land. After which the whole of Ukraine would fall under article 5.
Of course we can if we want to.
The entire point of NATO is to defend against Russian aggression, so waiving parts of rules seems like fair game if addressing that goal so directly.
Like I said
I feel like if NATO wanted to or had the capacity to waive the part about joining while involved in conflict, we would have already seen something.
You’ll have to take those concerns up with the member states. I’m not trying to espouse whats physically possible, Putin getting assassinated tomorrow is physically possible, don’t make your plans around it though. I’m trying to understand this plea in the context of who it’s made to and where we are after years of this.
I suppose there hasn’t been much urgency and thr goal of many members is ‘stability,’ but they are now facing a new reality where, according to historical precedent, there will be much less stability after Jan 20th, and there is new urgency to bend rules before then.
Escalate how, exactly? Is Russia going to be at more war with Ukraine?
And WTF do they think is gonna happen after Jan 20th?
They might escalate by getting other countries soldiers to…oh yeah…
What could they do, enlist North Korea?
Thats an Onion headline, surely…
It’s sickening how so many people are willing to just sacrifice Ukraine to appease Russia. When they say “escalate”, what they really mean is “make us feel some of the hurt that Russia is sending Ukraine’s way”.
Not even that, they really just need to pay more taxes to help Ukraine.
But nope.
And Russia wouldn’t dare bomb NATO unless they want to get totally screwed.
Get Ukraine in NATO now! Let Trump ragepost on Twitter/Stupid Social, he’s going to forget about it before the day his tantrums have consequences.
It doesn’t have ti be complicated
The conflict continues to escalate while Europe watches, hoping the problem goes away. If Russia takes over Ukraine, they will keep going.
NATO will probably do something once Russia reaches Portugal.
