A former Ukrainian military commander, now the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Waleri Saluschny, has stated that NATO member states in Eastern Europe are aware that the US-led military alliance does not intend to protect them from Russia.
According to Saluschny, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on a NATO member is considered an attack on all, is not being implemented in practice.
As an example, he recalled an incident during his time as the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, in which Romanian representatives asked him not to comment on the fact that two suspected Russian drones had crashed on Romanian territory. A Bukarest official later blamed Ukraine for the incident, claiming that the drones had been diverted to Romania by electronic interference from Kiev.
Saluschny expressed doubts that a NATO membership for Ukraine would provide the country with real security guarantees, stating that it would only offer political protection.
Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff, a US special envoy of former President Donald Trump, said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, had largely admitted that they would not become a NATO member. Witkoff also stated that it might be accepted that Ukraine and Russia, if a peace agreement is reached, would have to agree that Ukraine cannot join NATO.
Regarding the possibility of a “Article 5 security guarantee” for Ukraine through the US or Western European states without formal NATO membership, Witkoff said it was an open question.
Russia had previously cited the prevention of Ukraine’s NATO membership as one of the reasons for the start of its military operation in February 2022. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow confirmed last year that a NATO membership for Ukraine was “unacceptable” to Moscow and went against Russia’s position that a country’s security cannot be guaranteed at the expense of another’s.