Ukraine Joining NATO Not On Table Despite Pentagon Chief's Statement - Experts

Ukraine joining NATO is not currently on the agenda, despite the recent statement by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Kiev can make the decision by itself and that Washington will support it, experts told Sputnik

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2021) Ukraine joining NATO is not currently on the agenda, despite the recent statement by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Kiev can make the decision by itself and that Washington will support it, experts told Sputnik.

Commenting on prospects for Ukraine's NATO membership, the Pentagon chief earlier confirmed Washington's support for Kiev's aspirations and emphasized that third countries have no right to veto the accession. The statement prompted a harsh response from Moscow, with Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko calling such a step "extremely dangerous" and warning about possible consequences.

"To my knowledge, there is strictly no new initiative to integrate the state of Ukraine into the NATO Alliance," Sven Biscop, geopolitics professor at the RUGhent University and lecturer at the European Security and Defense College (ESDC), told Sputnik.

In his answer, Austin quite clearly alluded to Russia when he said that nobody has the right to veto Ukraine's decision to join NATO, Biscop noted. However, it does not mean that the US is willing to actively support this candidacy, he added.

After his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva, US President Joe Biden was asked the same question and gave a similar reply, confirming that Ukraine could become a candidate when it is ready, Biscop recalled.

But the expert firmly believes that NATO members have evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of Ukrainian membership and concluded that "now is not the time." Moreover, the accession is a "red line" for Russia and, according to Biscop, for Europe as well.

"The objective strategic position of Ukraine is that it is a buffer-state between the Alliance and Russia. The integration of Ukraine into NATO is not on the table, not at all," Biscop concluded.

Such declarations are most likely made for domestic consumption, Nina Bachkatov, lecturing professor at the ULg University in Belgium on Eurasia, told Sputnik.

Given that Kiev is well aware of Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which forbids a country at war from becoming a member, its outspoken position that it is currently "at war" in Donbas serves as proof that Ukraine uses such rhetoric for internal purposes only.

"There are elections soon in Ukraine and the Zelenskyy government wants to show force. So clearly no, Ukraine does not have a chance of joining NATO now, if only because it declares that it is at war," Bachkatov said.

Projecting hostility and painting Russia as a villain is also in the interest of the new US administration, the expert noted. "Lloyd Austin pays lip service to it," she remarked.

At the same time, Bachkatov is confident that Washington does not really have a plan for Ukraine and will only support Zelenskyy because there is no better option. The EU, in turn, does not want to see a country that has such bad relations with the preeminent military power in Europe, Russia, as part of the alliance, she said.

The most likely development is that Ukraine will remain a buffer state between East and West, experts agreed.

"The USA will support Zelenskyy at the next election because they have no other real option, but they don't really know what to do. Ukraine will not join NATO, that is for sure, apart from the lip service paid here by the Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin," Xavier Moreau, a French expert of arms and geopolitics with the StratPol think tank, also told Sputnik.

Additionally, Moreau predicts that the situation in Ukraine will deteriorate over the next few months, as the country still relies on Russian gas to heat its cities. The start of the heating season has already been postponed from October 15 to October 23, the expert said.

Another problem is a shortage of coal for industrial production, as Kiev was forced to turn to the US for supplies to avoid buying from Donbas or Russia, according to Moreau. "Ukraine is in dire straits," he said.