The admission of Ukraine into the North Atlantic alliance could lead to a war between the United States and Russia. This was announced on July 7 by US Senator Rand Paul.
“This is completely wrong and could lead us to war with Russia, which no one should wish for,” he tweeted.
Thus, he responded to the proposal of fellow Republican Party Senator Lindsey Graham, who spoke about his plans to work with representatives of both US parties on a resolution calling for Ukraine to join NATO.
“Absolutely disagree,” Paul said.
Earlier in the day, US President Joe Biden said he considered it premature to put Ukraine to NATO to a vote because of the conflict with Russia and its failure to meet membership criteria.
Also, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO following the summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12. According to him, Ukraine has not fulfilled all the conditions for joining NATO.
Earlier, on July 5, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Ukraine must reform and meet relevant NATO standards, which other countries also comply with, before it can be accepted into the alliance. The spokeswoman also stressed that the United States continues to support NATO’s open door policy to this day.
On the same day, the head of the Bundestag foreign policy committee from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Michael Roth, suggested that the regions controlled by Kyiv be admitted to NATO as soon as possible. He called for a “more broad interpretation” of the treaty basis for Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.
The North Atlantic Alliance also confirmed the decision to create a Ukraine-NATO Council. The first meeting of the council will be held at the summit in Vilnius on July 12 at the level of heads of state.
Earlier, on July 3, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto noted that the admission of Ukraine to NATO could not be discussed until the armed conflict ceased in the country. In his opinion, this decision should be confirmed at the July summit in Vilnius.
On June 27, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted that there are reasons for inviting the country to NATO, but did not name them. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader stressed that he has a full understanding of the country’s security guarantees until joining the alliance.
On September 30, 2022, Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis. Then Zelensky said that in fact Ukraine is already in NATO and meets the standards of the alliance.
