Finnish president responds on realism of Ukraine receiving NATO invitation by year-end

He made the statement at the Helsinki Security Forum.

In response to the question of how realistic it is for Ukraine to receive an invitation to join NATO by the end of the year, Stubb stated that such an expectation is unrealistic. However, he noted that an invitation for Ukraine is possible in the long term.

“Don't hang everything onto getting the invitation now. It is going to happen; it's a step-by-step process. Russia wanted to avoid, at all costs, getting NATO to its borders. It got Finland; it got Sweden; it will get Ukraine, and all of those countries that want to join the alliance,” the Finnish president emphasized. 

He indicated that Finland supports Ukraine's NATO membership, but emphasized that “the timing has to be right.” Stubb reminded that a country at war cannot become a NATO member. At the same time, he dismissed the notion that Russia could prevent Ukraine from joining NATO through a full-scale invasion, stating that the war "will end at some point.”

In Stubb's opinion, Ukraine will first become a member of the EU and then NATO. But this will happen after security arrangements and bilateral security guarantees are agreed upon, primarily with the United States, Britain, or France. 

• Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the United States and other Western allies “do not want Ukraine to be a member state” of NATO.