Ukraine has never been promised NATO membership as part of peace talks with Russia – Rutte
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the North Atlantic Alliance has never promised Ukraine membership as part of a peace agreement with Russia.
He said this during a press conference following a meeting of NATO ministers, Censor.NET reports.
"In Washington, NATO made a commitment to Ukraine's future membership in NATO, but there was no specific agreement that when peace talks begin and end, they will definitely end in NATO membership," he explained.
The NATO Secretary General noted that Ukraine's accession to NATO is likely, but "it was not clearly stated."
According to Rutte, the main task is to ensure that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin never tries to attack Ukraine again.
"This is critically important. We talked about it yesterday, we can talk about it in 10 minutes, we can come up with 5-10 options on how to provide these guarantees for Ukraine in the future. But Ukraine has never been promised that NATO membership will be part of the peace deal," the Alliance chief emphasized.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that he considers Ukraine's membership in NATO "unlikely."
Also, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hagel said that the United States does not consider Ukraine's membership in NATO a realistic outcome of a peaceful settlement of the war.
