U.S. indecision stalls Ukraine’s NATO bid — political analyst

Volodymyr Horbach, Executive Director of the Institute for North Eurasia Transformation, shared his opinions on Espreso TV.

“During Donald Trump’s first term, at a major NATO summit, if I remember correctly, in Brussels, President Macron commented on Trump’s speech and stance by saying, ‘NATO is experiencing brain death.’ And that brain was Donald Trump’s. The current indecisiveness of American leadership is what hinders Ukraine’s NATO membership. This is true not only because of Donald Trump but all U.S. presidents, except, obviously, George W. Bush, who reportedly supported it back in Bucharest. All the others were very cautious, mainly due to Russia’s position,” he said.

Volodymyr Horbach noted that if all previous NATO summits had set a date for Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance, the Russian attack might not have happened.

“And if all previous NATO summits had been positive and indicated a date for Ukraine’s NATO membership, the Russian attack might not have occurred. But fear and paralysis in the face of Russian aggression still prevail in NATO, and many countries, including Donald Trump and the United States, are gripped by this paralysis,” the political analyst said.

• On April 4, it was reported that the Netherlands expects to see Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in The Hague from June 24 to 26 and demands that Alliance partners increase support for Ukraine and raise international pressure on Russia to achieve peace.
• On May 15, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied claims that the U.S. is allegedly against inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the NATO summit starting June 24 in The Hague.