Lithuania calls Kiev's possible NATO membership a cheap security guarantee
The fifth article of the NATO charter would be the cheapest security guarantee for Ukraine. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said this at a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels on December 4.
"If we want peace in Ukraine, we will have to give it security guarantees. There is no cheaper way to give security guarantees than NATO's Article Five," Landsbergis said, Reuters quoted him as saying.
He added that the outcome of the conflict can only be decided on the battlefield. The Minister considers illusory the view that Europe cannot supply Kiev with what it needs to do so.
Earlier in the day, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel spoke out in Brussels against Ukraine's membership in NATO because it could become a catalyst for further escalation of the conflict. The minister believes that the best alternative for Kiev would be to join the EU.
On 3 December, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that Ukraine's possible membership in NATO was of concern to Germany, Hungary and the USA. At the same time, the UK and France are in favor of the state joining the bloc, although US President Joe Biden does not approve of the idea, and the winner of the US presidential election, Republican Donald Trump, has never supported it at all.
On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that Ukraine's accession to the alliance was unacceptable for Russia because it posed a threat. In his turn, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pointed out that the bloc was not discussing Kiev's invitation and was negotiating only on arms supplies.
Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. Then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his term expired on May 20) said that in fact the country was already in the alliance and met its standards.
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