NATO Members Divided Over Future Support for Ukraine

The NATO Alliance is once again teasing the promise of membership for Ukraine—but Chief Stoltenberg is now admitting that the only way Kiev can become a member is if "President Putin doesn’t win this war."

In other words, despite all of the political double-speak, NATO is still wary of Russia's red line...

The NATO Alliance is promoting its upcoming summit set for July, with Chief Stoltenberg once again teasing the promise of membership for Ukraine. But as always, it comes with a catch, and this time, as the chief is admitting that if Ukraine doesn’t win, then there’s no point in making the nation an official member of the alliance.

“I also strongly believe all of our allies will state that the first and most urgent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails, that President Putin doesn’t win this war. Because it’s only if Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation in Europe that there’s any meaning in discussing when and how Ukraine can become a member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said during an appearing before the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Monday.

The NATO chief also gave the typical political double speak, which can be loosely translated into stating that the alliance is more than happy to use Ukraine as their favorite money-laundering battlefield to fight a proxy war against Russia. But when it comes to the question of whether they want to be responsible for Ukraine as an official alliance member—well, they’re not ready to commit just yet, despite years of promises.

“It is obvious that NATO allies will, when they meet in July … they will send a very clear message of support for Ukraine, and this will be manifested in many different ways,” Stoltenberg said.

Now, you may be wondering, given all of the sanctions NATO members have imposed against Russia, and all of the money and weapons they have sent to Ukraine to help fight Russia, why doesn’t the alliance just take the final step and add Ukraine as an official member? After all, they know that has always been a red line for Russia… so what’s stopping them?

The short answer is still… Russia.

Because if the historic sanctions campaign imposed by the West didn’t destroy the Russian economy… which it didn’t; and if the demands for the rest of the world to cut off ties with Russia didn’t work… which they also didn’t; and in the cases of countries like China, Saudi Arabia, India and others… those demands pushed them even closer to Russia… then what the West has learned in the last year is that Russia is lot stronger than they bargained for, and they don’t fully want to cut off their chances of ever having anything to do with Russia ever again.

That’s why, in Sunday’s Washington Post article focused on the topic of NATO membership, anonymous officials note that Western countries like the U.S., Germany and France all seem to be playing the blame game, insisting it’s one of the others who isn’t supportive of making Ukraine an official member. In reality, they could also be leaving the door open for a potential way out – as reports start to admit that the promise of a long-awaited Spring counter-offensive from Ukraine, carries with it stakes that include a potential loss of support from the West, and a renewed push for peace talks.

Can we just take a minute to acknowledge… how insane it is that for more than a year now, the U.S. and its allies have waged a proxy war on an unprecedented scale, and have made no secret about the fact that they want that war to continue, so much so, that they continue to claim that peace talks are a bad thing? With U.S. officials claiming it’s up to Zelensky to make the call—when we know Zelensky doesn’t decide anything—and Joe Biden criticizing anyone that dares to call for a ceasefire, especially if they’re China?

Meanwhile, Zelensky is on yet another tour of Europe to demand more weapons and support, and to stage another ridiculous photo op with his BFF, Rishi Sunak in the UK. The approach appears to be to secure as much money and weapons as possible now… before the West releases that this counter-offensive isn’t quite the game changer they promised it would be. At least, that’s according to Ukraine’s Defense Minister, who said, “The expectation from our counteroffensive campaign is overestimated in the world.”

But isn’t that the theme of this entire war? The West makes grand promises… and then when they don’t deliver, they expect the public to just move on. No consequences, no accountability, and certainly no transparency, just as we saw in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, just to name a few.

They continue to kick the can down the road, buying time as they use and abuse Ukraine, while trying to weaken Russia in the process. Because if there’s anything we’ve learned in the last year, it’s what we should learned in the last 20… the country that is being targeted may change, but U.S.-led foreign policy does not, even when it’s bringing us to the brink of World War 3 on multiple fronts—and that’s something everyone should be talking about.