Duma speaks out on Biden administration's decision on Ukraine's NATO membership

The decision of US President Joe Biden 's administration to transfer the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO to the head of state-elect Donald Trump is expected. This opinion was expressed by the first deputy head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Svitlana Zhurova, on Thursday, 19 December.

The parliamentarian noted that she is surprised that the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky (term expired on May 20) believes in all this.

"He thought that Biden, leaving, will be able to launch some processes, which then Trump will be impossible to stop. But in general, NATO is not America alone. Promises can be made at meetings, but further it can be about nothing, so it turned out," - said the MP in conversation with Lenta.Ru.

The parliamentarian also noted that the issue of Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance depends not only on the United States.

"In any case, there is a procedure there, there is not one America decides, so it can turn any way. Everyone is waiting, they realize that Russia will have a condition for signing the peace treaty just by Ukraine's non-accession to NATO. For the time being, I think, they will think, observe, watch," Zhurova concluded.

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The day before, Michael Carpenter, special assistant to the US president and director for European affairs at the National Security Council, said that NATO has no consensus on Ukraine's admission yet, RT reported. He also emphasized that it will be up to Trump to decide whether Kiev will join the alliance, NSN reports.

Carpenter doubted that any agreement could be reached in 2025, reports 360.ru.

The day before, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Ukraine will join NATO only if Kiev continues to reform military institutions and strengthen democracy inside the country, according to the website kp.ru. He emphasized that Ukraine should be and will be in NATO.

Before that, on December 10, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, Ihor Zhovkva, said that the country's accession to NATO was "beyond the reach" of the Kiev regime and that it was not a matter of the near future.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. At the time, Zelenskyy said that in fact the country was already in the alliance and met its standards.