Ukraine’s invitation to NATO at a summit in Washington in July could deprive Russian dictator Putin of the incentive to continue the war and pave the way for peace.
This was stated by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a briefing in Kyiv regarding the launch of the International Working Group on Security Issues and Euro-Atlantic Integration, which should facilitate this process, Ukrinform reported.
“The invitation to the Alliance should be given to Ukraine already at the NATO summit in July. I know: it will be a controversial and unprecedented decision if we invite a country that is already at war to NATO,” said Rasmussen.
He noted that skeptics will present a counterargument that “as long as the war continues, NATO cannot extend an invitation to Ukraine.” But the politician believes that this is very dangerous, because it will strengthen Putin’s intention to continue the war.
“We have to extend an invitation and demonstrate that we are sincere when we say that Ukraine will join the Alliance. This will make it clear to Putin that he will not be able to prevent this. We will not let him win this war. “Ukraine is an integral part of NATO,” explained the former secretary general of the Alliance.
Rasmussen also noted that the West cannot allow Putin to achieve any success in Ukraine, because that would be a signal to the rest of the world.
“If Putin can take Crimea, then I can take Taiwan. This is a fact,” he argued.
An international working group will deal with how exactly to use Ukraine’s invitation to stop the war.
“So that we can say: the invitation paves the way to peace,” added Rasmussen.
We will remind you that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have made progress in the transition to NATO standards. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). American analysts refer to data from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. From December 2023 to January 2024, Ukraine implemented more than 18 standards of the North Atlantic Alliance, in particular, regarding the protection of personnel, communication training of naval forces, procedures for information and transport systems.
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