Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Voldymyr Zelensky asked 80-year-old President Joe Biden to invite Kiev for NATO membership at the July 11 upcoming summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Zelensky continues to antagonize 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has called Zelensky’s insistent demands to join NATO as one of the reasons to invade Feb. 24, 2022. Biden has embraced the Ukraine albatross and shows he’s all in on a losing proposition of battling the Russian Federation in a destructive proxy war that costs the U.S. billions in government and military aid. Zelensky knows that if Sweden has trouble getting Hungary and Turkey to agree to NATO membership, what’s going to happen with 31 NATO counties? Zelensky continues to push for NATO membership because he thinks the Transatlantic Alliance should fight the Russian Federation.
Zelensky calls Biden the “decision maker” when it comes to NATO membership. If that were the case, why has Hungary and Turkey blocked Sweden’s membership? Whether or not Biden has more clout than other NATO members, it takes a unanimous vote by all 31 NATO countries. NATO counties have economic requirements to join the alliance, requiring every NATO member to pay substantial yearly dues. With Ukraine bankrupt relying 100% on U.S. government largess, how can Zelensky expect the U.S. to pay Ukraine’s due into the foreseeable future? NATO’s 64-year-old Secretary Gen. Jens Stoltenberg has already told Zelensky that NATO membership isn’t in the cards for the foreseeable future. But Zelensky keeps pushing knowing how it would likely kill any prospects for a ceasefire and peace talks. Zelensky wants no part of ceasefire and peace talks with the Russian Federation.
Zelensky says that NATO membership would help motivate his troops as they battle the Kremlin. “He [U.S. president-ed] support our future in NATO,” Zelensky said, insisting that it would help motive his troops. Zelensky wants NATO membership to invoke Article 5 that requires all NATO countries to go to the defense of a fellow NATO state. Zelensky says he accepts the idea that the war must be over before Kiev could join NATO but thinks it would send a powerful message to Putin. Zelensky wants consensus at the Vilnius summit, where the host country and Baltic States deplore Putin and would have the greatest sympathy to Ukraine’s membership. Zelensky says he can’t wait for NATO membership but will ask the allince in Vilnius. Baltic States, once Soviet satellites, have been threatened since 1991 by Russia and are sympathetic to Zelensky’s pleas for NATO membership.
Biden has trashed decades of U.S.-Russian relations funding Ukraine’s proxy war against the Kremlin. Putin and the Kremlin don’t see the war as against Ukraine but the whole Western Alliance, led by the United States. So, when it comes to Zelensky pushing for NATO membership, he knows that it pushes peace talks out of reach. U.S. officials haven’t been honest about Zelensky’s motives in continuing the war. Zelensky says he wants Russia to leave all of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. But Zelensky knows that Russian troops were in Donetsk and Luhansky before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. He also knows that the so-called 2014 Maiden Revolution that booted Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukobych out of Kiev was backed by the CIA. Putin annexed Crimea in response to the CIA-backed coup that threatened his Sevastopol Black Sea naval base.
Destroying much of Ukraine’s infrastructure and losing some 25% of sovereign territory, Zelensky plays catch-up, trying to desperately to reclaim Ukraine’s lost territory. When Putin offered to end the invasion in March 2022 if Zelensky accepted independence of Donetsk and Luhansk plus Russian sovereignty over Crimea, Zelensky said no. Zelensky was encouraged by Biden to continue fighting, saying that the only way to get back land at a peace table was to prevail in the war. So, because of Biden’s insistence, Zelensky has destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure, killed thousands, driven 10 million Ukrainians into exile and lost some 25% of sovereign territory. Biden and Zelensky lied to the U.S. and Europe, saying that the Ukraine War defends European democracy, when, in fact, it destroys it. Putin doesn’t want to invade Europe, he want the U.S. to stop arming Ukraine.
Zelensky continues to antagonize the Russian Federation asking for NATO membership, just like he did for months before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. “It’s so important to feel that you are really being around allies in the future,” Zelensky said. So, if you follow Zelensky’s logic, Russia is the perennial enemy, requiring the NATO alliance to be in a perpetual state of war. Zelensky claims he understands the war must be over before Ukraine can b e invited into NATO but Stotenberg doesn’t want NATO to be in a constant state of war to satisfy Zelensky’s demands. “We understand everything. but this signal is really very important. And depends on Biden’s decision,” Zelensky said. If Biden has so much clout, why hasn’t he pushed or Kiev’s NATO membership. Biden knows that NATO wants no part of a scenario that embroils the alliance into a perpetual state of war.
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.
