The political scientist explained the impossibility of Ukraine joining NATO in the future

Alexey Zudin, a political scientist and senior lecturer at MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, said in an interview with Izvestia on March 31 that Ukraine would not join NATO, since if the country in its current form became a member of the alliance, it would mean that NATO would be involved in a direct confrontation with Russia.

"The issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO is a concrete example of how elementary tricks called "carrots" are used in big politics. A certain promise is given to a foreign state, its leaders, and the elites, which is highly attractive to them. But it is given under certain conditions. In order for this promise to be fulfilled, it is necessary to fulfill various kinds of prerequisites. At the same time, the country that makes the promise is not really going to fulfill it," the expert noted.

He clarified that a specific example of the use of such false promises was given by the West, primarily by the United States, to the Ukrainian elites. The political scientist recalled that after the Ukrainian crisis turned into a hot phase, during one of the discussions, former US Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul let slip that no one was going to accept Ukraine into NATO.

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"The entire current Ukrainian political class, and especially the group that currently rules in Kiev, they have completely linked their political career with the achievement, with the realization of this promise. They have been mentally in NATO for a long time. This circumstance has helped and continues to help the United States and Western countries use Ukraine as a tool to fight Russia. Why can't Ukraine be accepted into NATO? Simply because if Ukraine in its current form becomes a member of NATO, it will mean that NATO will be involved in a direct confrontation with Russia, which is a nuclear power," Zudin explained.

According to him, this ambiguous situation was used quite actively by the administration of former American President Joe Biden, when, on the one hand, Ukraine was pushed and stimulated for an armed struggle with Russia. On the other hand, the United States has avoided and made public statements in every possible way that there will not and cannot be any American troops in military operations in Ukraine, simply because this means a direct clash with Russia. At the same time, NATO, in various forms, was drawn into the process of armed confrontation and military operations in Ukraine.

"This creeping integration of NATO into the armed conflict in Ukraine was combined with a very clear unwillingness of NATO and, above all, the United States to see Ukraine as part of NATO. That is, Ukraine within the framework of these relations, within the framework of this model, is clearly an instrument that will never become a full—fledged part of the alliance that uses Ukraine as an instrument," Zudin concluded.

Earlier, on March 30, US President Donald Trump told reporters that despite Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky's desire for Ukraine to join NATO, this would never happen.