Ukraine must focus on preserving sovereignty instead of joining NATO: Stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Ukraine must focus on maintaining its sovereignty and countering Russian aggression rather than focus on joining NATO.

"The most immediate and urgent task is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent democratic nation in Europe. And to do so, we need to mobilize as much as we can, when it comes to military, economic, financial, humanitarian support to Ukraine," the NATO chief said, dismissing prospects of Ukraine's entry into the Western military alliance. He made the remarks at the meeting of the foreign minister in the Romanian capital scheduled for November 29-30. Stoltenberg discussed the challenges posed by China and the Ukrainian conflict. In the briefing later he said that Kyiv must not rush to join the alliance. 

"If Ukraine does not prevail as an independent sovereign state, then of course the membership issue is not at the table at all," Stoltenberg told a press conference after the NATO foreign ministers meeting held in Bucharest.

Ukraine applied for NATO membership after Russia annexed four of the occupied Ukrainian territories in the eastern Donbass region. Zelenskyy dispatched a formal application to the US-led bloc NATO seeking candidature into the alliance that irked Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

In a recorded message later outside his presidential office, Zelenskyy noted that his application for formal entry into NATO was a “decisive step” and was taken to protect “the entire community” of Ukraine. He cited the security reasons, saying that Russia's invading forces captured Ukrainian towns and cities rampantly. He pledged to the Ukrainians to ensure that Kyiv's application would be considered in an “expedited manner”.

Ukraine can't be part of NATO: EU

Earlier, echoing NATO chief's remarks, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton said during an interview with French TV channel BFM that Ukraine’s NATO bid and its official membership into the Western military Alliance might not be successful for as long as it is engaged in the armed conflict and hostilities with Russia.

Breton labelled the conflict with Russia as a "disqualifying" factor for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's NATO application. Breton argued that to apply for NATO membership, "you must not be a country at war." He furthermore stressed that NATO accessions are made "when the countries are at peace." This is because the entire Alliance would be dragged into the conflict, he noted. As “Ukraine is a country at war, its NATO membership is a symbolic, political demand,” Breton said, dismissing the possibility of Ukraine becoming a NATO member.