Dealing more than the Ukraine question, the NATO Vilnius, Lithuania summit began today, the fourth meeting to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since the Feb. 24, 2022 of the Ukraine War. Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for NATO membership since taking office May 20, 2019. Zelensky took over from 57-year-old former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who was in power during the so-called Maiden Revolution when a Feb. 22, 2024 pro-Western, CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Kremlin government of Viktor Yanukovych. Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevatopol Black Sea naval base. Zelensky inherited a low-intensity war with Russia in the Donbas region, where Russian separatist groups led by 42-year-old Denis Pushilin, representing the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Kiev authorities claim that between 2014 to the Feb. 24, 2022 start of the Ukraine War, over 14,000 Ukrainians lost their lives to hostilities between Kiev and the Russian Federation. With the current Ukraine War, Kiev doesn’t admit to Ukrainian casualties, estimated at about 50,000, matching estimates of Russia soldiers killed in the conflict. NATO has bigger problems than just responding to Zelensky’s push for NATO membership, including getting Turkey’s 69-yaear-old President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to agree to Sweden’s membership. Finland was already approved for NATO membership Arpil 4, putting pressure on Erodogan to stop objecting to Sweden. Erdogan wanted Sweden to reign in PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] seeking refuge in Sweden. Erdogan met with Swedish Prime MinisterUlf Kristersson and NATO’s Stoltenberg to hammer out any remaining differences.
Erdogan especially wanted the U.S. to release F-16 jets sales to Turkey in exchange with Erdogan ending his objections to Turkey’s NATO membership. Finland and Sweden were officially neutral during the long Cold War but clearly caucused with NATO in efforts to contain the Soviet Union or today’s Russian Federation. To win Erdogan’s approval, Kristersson agreed to push for Turkey’s accension into the European Union, something Turkey has wanted since 1987, “Our position is clear: the government supports S\tockholm’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto wrote on Facebook. “Completing the ratification process is now just a technical matter,” said Szijarto. Sweden now advances Turkey’s application to the EU to get Erdogan to ask the Ankara-based Turkish parliament to vote on adding Sweden to NATO.
Erdogan wanted to look like kingmaker at the NATO summit, removing remaining obstacles to Turkey’s membership. Turkey allowing Sweden in the alliance irks Zelensky that thinks that if any country needs NATO membership its Ukraine. Since he’s been battling the Russian Federation since Feb. 24, 2022, Zelensky think Ukraine should receive priority treatment, not Sweden. Yet Zelensky completely ignores the fact that he’s in an active war with the Kremlin because he refuses to accept 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the conflict. Putin offered Zelensky in March 2022 to end the conflict if Kiev recognized the independence or Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty of Crimea. Zelensky, with Biden cash-and-arms said, no, opting for a protracted war with the intent of ousting Russian troops from all Ukrainian soil.
NATO work at Vilnius is focused on more than Zelensky’s problems but working on increasing the defense budgets of its 32 members to 2% of GPP, a large increase in spending from current commitments. If you listen Zelensky and the U.S. press, the purpose of the NATO summit is to give Ukraine NATO membership. President Joe Biden, 80, made it clear that no NATO membership can be offered to Zelensky until he ends the war with Russia. Zelensky sees no end in sight because Putin has refused his 10-point peace plan requiring Russia to leave every inch of Ukraine’s territory. Putin occupied Crimea before the war and would no doubt after the war. Biden has given Zelensky a blank check from the U.S. Treasury to battle the Kremlin but the war must end before Ukraine is considered for NATO membership. Zelensky doesn’t accept NATO’s position on membership.
NATO’s priority at the Vilnius summit are more than dealing with Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. Every NATO country would like to see Zelensky end his war, go to the peace table at the earliest possible time. Any time a country offers a peace plan that has Ukraine compromising with the Russia Federation, Zelensky accuses them of colluding with Russia. “NATO is concluding quite ambitious individual partnership agreements with these four countries to do things like maritime security, climate change, cyber defenses, critical infrastructure, protection and technology,” said 70-year-old NATO Deputy-Secretary-General Jamie Shea. Shea talks about new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, to deal with emerging threats with China. When it comes to Zelensky, though hyped by the U.S. press, it’s low on the food chain.
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.
