Ukraine was called a de facto member of NATO

Military expert Gorbachev: Ukraine “in fact” can be considered a member of NATO

Ukraine can already be considered a member of the Western military-political bloc NATO, whose countries fully coordinate its activities, military expert Sergei Gorbachev said.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that everyone in NATO agreed that Ukraine should join the organization.

“This statement is not accidental. Time will tell how feasible it is. Ukraine has been cooperating with NATO for more than a quarter of a century,” the analyst shared his point of view.

According to him, since 1997, relations between the North Atlantic Alliance and Kiev began to be formalized, developed and filled with concrete content. Gorbachev recalled that Ukraine took part in a number of NATO programs, missions and exercises.

“In fact, Ukraine is already a member of the alliance that coordinates its activities,” the expert believes.

There is an accelerated transition of Ukraine to NATO standards, pumping military products, data exchange, training and much more, Gorbachev explained, noting that work with some members of the bloc is not carried out on such a gigantic scale and volume.

He pointed out that such a problematic country as Ukraine is usually not officially accepted into the alliance, which makes it possible not to apply the clauses of the charter, including on collective security, to it. At the same time, such statements by NATO representatives indicate that the alliance is a participant in the Ukrainian conflict, the expert concluded.