Zelensky 'Plays Into Putin's Hand' With NATO Push: Ex-General
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's push to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is "playing into Putin's hand," warned retired U.S. General Barry McCaffrey.
Ukraine's potential NATO membership has remained a sticking point between Kyiv and the military alliance's member states amid their summit this week. Zelensky has pushed for a more clear timeline as to when Ukraine could join NATO and has voiced frustration with leadership over its reluctance to extend an invite to the Eastern European country that continues to fight off an invasion from Russia.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference Tuesday that Ukraine could only join the alliance once "conditions" are met, but did not go into further detail about those requirements. Zelensky, however, hit out at NATO leadership over the vagueness surrounding Ukraine's membership bid ahead of the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, tweeting that it was "absurd to not give Ukraine a time frame for prospective accession."
"On the way to Vilnius, we received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine. And I would like to emphasize that this wording is about the invitation to become [a] NATO member, not about Ukraine's membership," he wrote. "It's unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine's membership. While at the same time vague wording about 'conditions' is added even for inviting Ukraine."
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appears on a giant screen as he delivers a statement at the start of the first plenary session of the NATO summit at the Ifema congress center in Madrid, on June 29, 2022. Retired U.S. General Barry McCaffrey warned on Tuesday that Zelensky's public push for NATO membership "plays into Putin's hand." Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty
McCaffrey said during an interview on MSNBC Tuesday that Zelensky, who has otherwise shown "incredible political judgment" in his diplomacy amid the war, is "really pushing on a locked door" regarding NATO membership.
"For him to insist on this public gesture, it seems to me is foolhardy. This plays into Putin's hand. He wants to claim he's fighting against NATO, not criminal invasion of a neighboring country," he said. "So I think he's out over his skis here, and this is not good for Ukraine."
Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
Ukraine is unlikely to be given NATO membership until the war against Russia ends, U.S. President Joe Biden said over the weekend. NATO's Article 5 states that an attack on one NATO country shall be treated by the alliance as an attack on all, fueling concerns that Ukraine joining the organization would leave the entire bloc at war with Russia.
McCaffrey said NATO countries do not want to join the Russia-Ukraine war, as experts have said doing so would risk a significant escalation of the conflict. He noted that while Ukraine is not a member state, NATO and other allies have offered it substantial military aid that has been attributed to turning the tide of the war in their favor.
"There is zero possibility that any member of NATO wants to enter the air, ground, sea war against Russia," McCaffrey said. "Zelensky and Ukraine are getting tens of billions of dollars of economic, humanitarian and military support from not just NATO but the contact groups."
Biden on Sunday called for a "rational path" that would allow Ukraine to join NATO once its war with Russia ends during his CNN interview.
"We're determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory. That's a commitment that we've all made no matter what," Biden said. "If the war is going on, then we're all in the war. We're at war with Russia, if that were the case."
However, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Newsweek on Monday that Ukrainian accession is "inevitable," regardless of any Russian threat.
Source: Newsweek
