nato-talks-with-ukraine-now-toxic-says-kyiv

Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO have reached a standstill, with talks growing increasingly strained and unproductive, a senior Ukrainian official has said. The comments reflect growing frustration in Kyiv as enthusiasm from Western allies appears to wane.

 

Georgy Tikhy, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, described the ongoing discussions with NATO partners as “toxic” in an interview published Friday on journalist Aleksandr Notevsky’s YouTube channel. He said negotiations had turned into repetitive exchanges, yielding little progress.

 

“All the arguments and counterarguments have already been presented, and each new round of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to NATO goes in circles,” Tikhy explained. “The discussions have become, to put it simply, very toxic.”

 

Ukraine formally applied for fast-track NATO membership in September 2022, several months after the conflict with Russia escalated. Despite repeated assurances from the alliance that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” no specific timeline or firm conditions for membership have been outlined.

 

At the 2023 NATO summit, the requirement for Ukraine to complete the Membership Action Plan was waived, technically simplifying the path to accession. However, the final communique stopped short of offering a firm invitation, saying one would be extended “when allies agree and conditions are met.”

 

Although Ukraine’s future membership was described as inevitable in last year’s summit documents, attitudes within the alliance have since cooled. Several NATO leaders have grown cautious, considering the potential for further escalation with Russia and re-evaluating long-term security priorities.

 

At the most recent NATO summit in June, Ukraine received minimal mention, and President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to gain the support he had sought for Kyiv’s future in the bloc.

 

US President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run for re-election, has been more direct in his stance. He has said that Ukraine “can forget about” joining NATO, suggesting the country’s aspirations may have triggered the current conflict. “That was probably the reason the whole thing started,” Trump remarked.

 

Russia has consistently denounced Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership, calling it a red line. Moscow maintains that Kyiv’s efforts to join the US-led alliance are one of the fundamental causes of the ongoing conflict. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine make a legally binding pledge to remain outside any military alliances in the future.