Dozens of foreign policy experts urged members of the North Atlantic Alliance to avoid the issue of Ukraine’s promotion to NATO membership at the summit in Washington on July 9-11. They warn that if Ukraine is accepted, Russia will attack it in the future, and this “will lead to the application of the fifth article of NATO,” which requires allies to defend a member of the Alliance. The appeal to avoid invoking the fifth article is widespread among those who oppose Ukraine’s membership.
“The closer NATO comes to promising Ukraine membership after the end of the war, the greater the incentive for Russia to continue the war. The challenges Russia creates can be solved without Ukraine’s involvement in NATO,” state documents cited by Politico.
It is noted that Ukraine’s accession may have the opposite of its intended consequences, “turning the country into a place of long-term confrontation between the two leading nuclear powers of the world” and playing into Putin’s hand. However, another group of experts believes that the allies will benefit if they offer Ukraine clear conditions for its future membership at the summit. It would also prove to Kyiv that the West’s support will not waver.