Europe won't be secure until Ukraine is in NATO - former U.S. ambassador

He expressed these views in an op-ed for The New York Times.

Taylor stated that once the war ends, Ukraine should become a NATO member. 

"An end to the conflict will come either with Ukraine repelling the Russian invaders or with the international community pressuring Russia to halt it, or both, as President Zelensky has suggested. But without Ukraine in the alliance, that nation will never be safe from the Russian aggression that has menaced it for 300 years, and Europe as a whole will not be secure,” he said.

He pointed out that since 2014, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has aimed to destroy Ukraine as a nation. However, with the backing of the U.S. and many allies, Ukraine has resisted Russian advances for 2 years and 8 months.

The diplomat also noted that some political experts in Washington are using Ukraine's denial of NATO membership from the 2008 Bucharest summit as a reason to claim that the Alliance will never accept Ukraine.

“I was the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv at the time, and I think the real lesson is different: We might have succeeded if we had started earlier and pushed harder,” Taylor wrote.

He recounted a meeting of U.S. ambassadors to Europe in late 2007, where he asked then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice if the Membership Action Plan for Ukraine would be supported at the Bucharest summit. Taylor said Rice seemed uncertain and implied that it wouldn’t be supported, which led some allies, including Germany, to oppose it.

He noted that then-President George W. Bush pushed his administration and other NATO leaders to support Ukraine’s membership, but it was too late. To help boost Ukraine’s NATO membership, Bush even visited Kyiv on his way to the summit.

According to Taylor, there are important lessons from the past that can guide us today.

"First, one can deduce that NATO membership is necessary to deter Russian aggression. Mr. Putin so far has attacked only non-NATO countries. Second, to achieve NATO membership for Ukraine, the United States must start early, making it a clear priority for the next NATO summit, in June," he emphasized.

Taylor also pointed out that NATO Allies agree that Ukraine still has a long way to go before it can join the Alliance. However, he noted that Ukraine is making significant strides toward EU membership, including necessary political and economic reforms.

In his view, while Russia may be unhappy about Ukraine joining NATO, the focus should not be on appeasing Moscow.

William Taylor served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 and later headed the mission as Chargé d'Affaires from 2019 to 2020.

• Ex-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that despite the occupied territories, Ukraine may join NATO: the issue of applying the collective defense article remains on the agenda.