US, Germany and Hungary oppose "roadmap" of Ukraine's ascension to NATO – FT

The United States, along with Germany and Hungary, opposes the intentions of other NATO member states to offer Ukraine a "road map" for membership in the Alliance at the summit in Vilnius.

Source: Financial Times, referring to four officials who took part in the negotiations, as European Pravda reports

Details: Last month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presented a proposal document to member states, outlining "practical and political" proposals for Kyiv. Among them is a proposal for a new declaration on Ukraine's relations with NATO, which would be based on the 2008 statement that the country would "one day" become a member of the Alliance.

FT sources said that there was an active debate between NATO foreign ministers in Brussels this week about exactly what should be offered to Ukraine in the updated declaration.

While all members of the Alliance agree that NATO membership cannot be seriously discussed while the war in Ukraine continues, there has been a growing number of supporters of the idea of offering Ukraine a "roadmap" to membership at the Vilnius summit, which would "strengthen" relations between the Alliance and Kyiv.

However, according to the sources of the Financial Times, the United States, as well as Germany and Hungary oppose this proposal.

Quote: "We’ve got several weeks of hard negotiations ahead to close those gaps and craft a political outcome," one of them said. ""The road [to the NATO Summit in Vilnius] is still very rocky," another source added.

In September 2022, Ukraine applied for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance and expects to receive new assurances on joining NATO at the upcoming summit in Vilnius. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said that Ukraine would not agree to alternative proposals that could replace NATO membership.

The day before, Dmytro Kuleba, Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the issue of providing Ukraine with the Action Plan for NATO membership is no longer on the agenda. According to him, Ukraine has submitted an application for membership and is waiting for decisions at the summit in Vilnius that will bring Ukraine closer to NATO membership.

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