— Ukraine will not join the alliance. This is not new, we have been talking about this since 2008," said Kellogg. He recalled that 17 years ago the then US Ambassador to Russia William Burns warned the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Ukraine's thought of joining NATO was “an unattainable goal.”
Before Bloomberg, citing his sources, reported that Trump administration presented its European allies with a preliminary plan to end the war in Ukraine. Among the key points is Russia's maintenance of control of the occupied territories, gradual leniency of sanctions against Moscow, and the rejection of the thought of granting NATO membership to Ukraine.
"Prezent for Russia"
According to the sources of the agency, the plan has not yet been formally presented to Kiev. However, according to them, Ukraine is fundamentally prepared to consider a ceasefire — provided that the Kremlin takes a akin step. At the same time, Bloomberg’s interlocutors stressed that the proposed initiative is not the final peace agreement, and only an effort to find a compromise that can only be implemented if Russia ceases its war effort.
Donald Trump himself repeated repeatedly that Ukraine "may forget NATO". According to him, the promises of the erstwhile administration, in peculiar president Joe Biden, to give Kiev a warrant of accession to the alliance, became 1 of the reasons why Russian aggression began. This rhetoric fits into the assertion that the Kremlin uses to justify the invasion.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenski criticised specified statements. On 20 March, he said that the exclusion of NATO membership from the negotiating agenda is in fact a ‘present to Russia’. — The United States, as a major ally in NATO, presently does not support Ukraine's accession to the alliance. This is reality,” said Zelenski.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte indicated that Ukraine's possible accession to the alliance should not be the subject of a peace agreement. But, according to him, this issue can be solved independently of the current negotiations and considered in the long term.
