NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speak at a joint press conference in Kiev, Ukraine in April (Photo: Reuters).
Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said on November 12 that Ukraine does not need any initiatives that would require it to cede part of its territory in exchange for some guarantees and NATO membership.
"I like (sarcastically) strange proposals for 'solving the conflict in Ukraine'. For example, sometimes one can hear the wonderful suggestion that Ukraine can easily join NATO in parts," he wrote on the social network X.
According to Mr. Podolyak, the only solution now is large-scale "military or technological aid" to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian official's statement came after the Guardian on November 11 quoted former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as saying that NATO should invite Ukraine to join the alliance without considering the territories that Ukraine no longer controls.
"It is time to take the next step and extend an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO. We need a new European security architecture, with Ukraine at the heart of NATO," Rasmussen said.
He stressed that the issue of Ukraine becoming a NATO member cannot be postponed until next year.
The former NATO Secretary General argued that by excluding Russian-controlled territories, the risk of a Russia-NATO conflict would be reduced.
"The absolute reliability of Article 5 (NATO Charter) will prevent Russia from launching attacks inside Ukraine once Ukraine becomes a NATO member, from which Ukraine can bring more forces to the front line," Mr. Rasmussen added.
Article 5 of the NATO Charter states that any armed attack against one or more NATO member states will be considered an attack against the entire 30-member US-led military alliance.
“To make Article 5 credible, it would be necessary to send a clear message to Russia that any violation of NATO territory would be met with a response,” Rasmussen said. “In some ways, this proposal is similar to imposing a no-fly zone on Russia so that it cannot fly over Ukrainian territory or launch missiles at Ukrainian towns.”
Previously, Stian Jenssen, Chief of Staff of NATO Secretary General, in August proposed a solution for Ukraine to "give up part of its territory to be admitted to NATO".
This statement immediately met with a strong reaction from Ukraine. Kiev said that any idea of Ukraine giving up part of its territory to join NATO was "unacceptable".
NATO officials later affirmed that the alliance supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and pledged to continue supporting Kiev to win the conflict with Russia.
Last October, President Vladimir Putin signed a law annexing four regions of Ukraine to Russian territory: Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia. In 2014, Russia also announced the annexation of the Crimean peninsula after a controversial referendum.
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