Ukraine could join NATO despite the Russia’s aggression

The North Atlantic Alliance could change the terms of NATO membership for the former Soviet Union countries so that they could become members of the military-political bloc without declaring a war on Russia. This idea was put forward by a former US State Department Special Representative on Ukraine Kurt Walker during an online discussion at the Kyiv Security Forum.

“Russia wants to prevent the countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova from joining the Alliance. And it occupied certain territories in these states”, the politician announced. He explained, that NATO did not want to admit such countries, because according to the Article 5 of the Alliance’s Statute this would automatically mean the necessity of waging war against Russia and seizing the occupied territories by force.

Correspondingly, Kurt Walker proposed not to apply this article to the countries, that were the USSR republics in the past. Instead, NATO might sign an agreement that the Article 5 would not be applied to the occupied territories, with Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova.

“We are committed not to be the first who use force to bring them back and to support only the peaceful reintegration of these territories and the integrity restoration of the countries which aspire to join NATO. This should deprive Russia of the incentives to continue the occupation of these territories”, Kurt Walker explained.