Ukraine’s 42-year-old Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba continues to push for NATO membership, no matter how it crosses red lines for 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kuleba shoots from the hip, telling NATO ahead of the July 11 Vilnius, Lithuania summit that NATO membership would help protect the alliance from future Russia aggression, a message so preposterous it defies any logic. If NATO offers membership to Ukraine the prospects of perpetual war on the European Continent expands, breaking all previous assurances after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union that NATO would not encroach on Russian territory. Kuleba speaks the same claptrap as his Propaganda Minister Kyrlyo Budanov who insists that the Ukraine War keeps Putin in check. Kuleba and Budanov won’t admit that NATO membership would be a deal breakers for the Russian Federation.
Kuleba likes to talk about a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest in which 68-year-old German Chanellor Angela Merkel and 68-year-old French President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed Ukraine’s NATO membership. Kuleba insists that if Ukraine and Georgia had NATO membership it would have kept Putin from invading Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. Kuleba has plenty of criticism for Hungarian President Viktor Orban who opposes Ukraine’s NATO membership because the country is bankrupt, currently funded by the United States. “Don’t repeat Chancellor Merkel’s mistake in Bucharest in 2008, when she fiercely resisted any progress toward Ukraine’s NATO membership,” Kuleba said. Merkel did what was necessary to avoid a war with the Kremlin over Ukraine. In 2008, Ukraine was fiscally solvent, unlike today 100% dependent on U.S. government largess.
Kuleba, Budanov and Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Voldymyr Zelensky have all the answers why NATO should take over its war with the Russian Federation. Approving Ukraine’s NATO membership with guarantee that Putin would see the action as a declaration of war. Zelensky, Kuleba and Budanov don’t care if they start WW III, because they’ve said that WW III has already started in Ukraine. Blaming Merkel for opposing Ukraine’s NATO membership is absurd, considering the consequences in 2008 to the alliance. Now that Ukraine’s taken on the Kremlin, they want the U.S. and NATO to fight its battle with the Russian Federation. Orban’s objection to Ukraine’s NATO membership is purely economic, noting that Ukraine is essentially a bankrupt country unable to pay its NATO dues. How does it strengthen NATO to go to war? Merkel had it right in 2008.
Kuleba makes outrageous claims about how much Ukraine would aid the NATO alliance, considering it’s at war with Russia and bankruptcy. Kuleba blames Merkel, saying it “opened the door for Putin’s invasion of Georgia, and ultimately, the illegal annexation of Crimea.” Kuleba knows that Ukraine’s so-called 2014 Maiden Revolution or Revolution of Dignity was actually a CIA-backed pro-Western coup that toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine with CIA help got rid of Yanukovych but Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2024 to protect his Sevatopol, Crimea naval base. Without backing from the Kiev government, Russia’s Black Sea fleet was threatened. So, Kuleba’s simplistic, twisted account of history is clearly self-serving, always pointing fingers at Merkel and Putin. Ukraine made its own destiny toppling the Yanukovych government.
Zelensky, Kuleba and, of course, Budanov have been selling the U.S. and EU on the idea that Ukraine protects European democracy. Actually, Ukraine does the opposite by creating perpetual war with the Russian Federation. When Putin invaded Feb. 24, 2022, it was after months of failed diplomacy with 80-year-old President Joe Biden. Biden kept arming Ukraine with lethal weapons over the Kremlin’s objections, prompting Putin to warn him about a possible “technical military operation” to offset the threat to the Russian Federation. So when Washington and Kiev like to say the war was “unprovoked and unjustified,” the Kremlin didn’t think so. “But after the war, it would be suicide for Europe not to accept Ukraine as a member of NATO,” Kuleba said, stating the exact opposite of reality. NATO membership, as Merkel saw it, would destabilize peace on the European Continent by provoking the Kremlin.
Zelensky, Kuleba and Budanov want to suck the U.S. and NATO into a ground war against the Russian Federation in Europe. Kiev insists that if only they had more lethal U.S. and NATO weapons they’d make more progress in their counteroffensive against the Russian Federation. Kiev has been pushing for F-16 fighter jets, and, more recently, asking for cluster bombs, something banned by most countries. “The way to close the doors of Russian aggression against Europe and the European-Atlantic area as a whole is to accept Ukraine into NATO,” Kuleba said, knowing it would destabilize NATO and European peace. Kuleba knows that Kiev pays government salaries and the war without 100% U.S. government support. How’s a war-ravage, bankrupt country supposed to help contain Russian aggression. Only a ceasefire and peace talks can guarantee peace in Europe.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
