Ukraine can't be part of NATO as it is engaged in conflict with Russia: EU Commissioner

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, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton said during an interview with French TV channel BFM on Thursday. Breton labelled the conflict with Russia as a "disqualifying" factor for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's NATO application.

EU Commissioner Thierry 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." Ths is because the entire Alliance would be dragged into the conflict otherwise, he noted. As “Ukraine is, alas, a country at war, its NATO membership is a symbolic, political demand,” Breton argued.

'De facto, we have already made our way to NATO': Zelenskyy

As Russia annexed four of the occupied Ukrainian territories in the eastern Donbass region, Zelenskyy sent a formal application to the US-led bloc NATO seeking candidature into the alliance that irks Russia's President Vladimir Putin. In a recorded message outside his presidential office in Kyiv on September 30, Zelenskyy stated that he took a “decisive step” in order to protect “the entire community” of Ukrainians as invading forces captured Ukrainian towns and cities. He also pledged to Ukrainians to ensure that Kyiv's application would be considered in an “expedited manner”.

This shocked Brussels as just six months ago, the Ukrainian President had acknowledged that Kyiv will not become a NATO member. Addressing the UK-led initiative—Joint Expeditionary Force— presided over by 10 north Atlantic countries, Ukraine's leader had asserted: “It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of Nato; we understand this." Although, as Moscow formally incorporated the Ukrainian regions under the Russian Federation in referenda that the international community called a "sham," Zelenskyy iterated, "De facto, we have already made our way to NATO." 

"We have already proven compatibility with alliance standards. They are real for Ukraine – real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction,” said Ukrainian President in his video address. “We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. This is the alliance. De facto. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure.”