Estonian Prime Minister: Ukraine will not join NATO because of hostilities on its territory

Ukraine will not join NATO while hostilities continue on its territory. This was stated by Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas at the Shangri-La Dialogue international security forum in Singapore.

“Of course, we support Ukraine’s path to NATO membership. Everyone understands that this cannot happen while the war is going on. But we will need clearer language than what was in Bucharest,” Kallas said (quote according to TASS).

On May 21, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of the G7 summit also declaredthat Ukraine cannot join the alliance because of “many conditions” that the country is not yet able to fulfill.

Scholz recalled that the decision on the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in NATO was made in Bucharest. According to him, it was immediately clear that “this will not happen in the foreseeable future.” The very agreement of the NATO countries on Ukraine’s membership in the alliance was adopted during the Bucharest summit in 2008, but the decision on the issue was postponed indefinitely.

After the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, joined Russia last fall, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky declaredthat Ukraine will apply for NATO membership in an expedited manner. Bloc Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg notedthat Kyiv should focus not on NATO membership, but on maintaining its independence.

In Kyiv, it was noted earlier that they expected to receive a political invitation to NATO at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius on July 11-12. May 15 The Washington Post, citing sources reportedthat the members of the alliance decided not to do so at the summit in Vilnius.