Stoltenberg invited Zelenski to the Washington summit: I do not expect an agreement on accession

“I don’t expect an agreement until the summit in July,” Stoltenberg said in Kiev at a joint press conference with Zelenski. Instead, the Secretary General declared himself confident that the July 9-11 summit will help Ukraine move forward on the road to joining NATO, a process he described as “irreversible”.

He recalled that within NATO it was agreed to strengthen the Alliance’s role in coordinating the military assistance intended for Ukraine and the training programs for the Ukrainian army offered by the member states to support it in the war with Russia.

At the meeting of foreign ministers from the NATO member states held at the beginning of this month, Stoltenberg presented a proposal to establish a fund of 100 billion euros as part of a five-year financing for Ukraine, an initiative received with mixed reactions by the 32 of member states of the Alliance, but about which he spoke again now in Kiev.

“I think we also need a large multi-year financial commitment to sustain our support and demonstrate that it is not just short-term and ad hoc, but predictable and long-term,” Stoltenberg indicated at the joint press conference with Zelensky.

The Secretary General of NATO insisted that he is doing everything possible for Ukraine to become a member of the Alliance “when the political conditions are met”.

Zelensky: Ukraine is a “de facto” member of the Alliance

For his part, President Zelenski recalled that the Ukrainian army uses more and more weapons from NATO countries and appreciated that Ukraine is a “de facto” member of the Alliance.

He called on his Western allies to speed up arms and ammunition deliveries to allow the Ukrainian military to “fail” the new offensive being prepared by Russia. “The rapidity of supply simply means stabilizing the front line,” Zelenskiy explained, as Ukraine’s troop- and ammunition-strapped troops lose ground on the eastern Ukrainian front to the outnumbered and better-equipped Russian army.

Stoltenberg warned in his turn that “insufficient ammunition allowed the Russians to advance along the front line”, also criticizing the delay in approving new US funding of more than 60 billion dollars, requested by President Joe Biden last year and approved by Congress only last week, as well as the failure of the EU to fully provide the promised aid.

“The European allies did not provide the promised ammunition”, he recalled, referring to the EU’s unfulfilled promise that in the period March 2023 – March 2024 it was to deliver to Ukraine one million 155 mm shells, of which by the set deadline they only about 30% were actually provided.

Also, “insufficient air defenses made it possible for more and more Russian missiles to reach their targets” in Ukraine, while “insufficient (Ukrainian military) deep-strike capabilities made it possible for the Russians to focus more many forces, and we are now seeing the consequences”, Stoltenberg also noted.

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