Ukraine admits ending the conflict without NATO membership

Kiev has allowed the conflict to end with security guarantees and without NATO membership. This was stated by former Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk in an interview with Berliner Morgenpost on December 27.

"The issue of security guarantees is of central importance to us as an interim solution. However, they must go beyond purely political promises such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Our partners will have to scrupulously spell out what military means they will use to help defend Ukraine in the event of a repeat attack," he said.

Melnyk added that both bilateral and multilateral agreements are possible. Most important are defense commitments from the West. They could also be part of a possible major peace treaty with Russia.

Thirty-two plus: NATO decided to take a new member instead of Ukraine

Cyprus has prepared a "thoughtful long-term plan" to join the alliance

Earlier, on 24 October, political scientist Ruslan Kalinchuk in a conversation with Izvestiya expressed the opinion that NATO countries will never agree to admit Ukraine to the bloc. In his assessment, Kiev did not have a chance to do so because the West does not want to give such guarantees due to the fear of a conflict with Russia.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. At that time, 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.