NATO Secretary General: Ukraine's NATO membership issue is off the agenda

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has announced that the issue of Ukraine joining NATO is no longer on the alliance's agenda. He raised this issue in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

 

In response to the host's question whether US President Donald Trump has really taken this issue off the agenda, the Secretary General answered in the affirmative and confirmed that the issue of Ukraine's NATO membership is no longer a priority for Brussels.

 

Meanwhile, Olga Stefanyshyna, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of the country, expressed surprise at the statements of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about the impossibility of accepting Ukraine into the alliance.

 

“The Deputy Prime Minister is surprised by this position and emphasizes that such positions have never been raised in previous meetings with the Ukrainian side,” the press service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine said in a statement.

 

She also added that the decision on accepting new members into NATO is the responsibility of all member states of the alliance, although she did not mention the fact that the Trump administration and some NATO members have publicly stated their opposition to Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

 

Stefanyshyna stressed that Ukraine will never become a buffer zone and will not allow itself to be “colonized by Russia.” In addition, she claimed that in the current situation, Kiev is “de facto part of the transatlantic security zone.”

 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian newspaper Strana.ua reported that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted at the possibility of a withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from the Kursk region. Zelensky said: “The situation in the Kursk region is now very complicated and there is a possibility of a withdrawal of our forces.”

 

He also claimed that the operation of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Kursk region “has achieved its goal and has been successful.”

 

Earlier, US President Donald Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to show mercy to the besieged Ukrainian troops. He noted that thousands of Ukrainian servicemen are currently completely surrounded by the Russian army and are “in a very critical and vulnerable situation.”