WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky says NATO membership 'impossible' before end of Russia war

President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Friday that Ukraine would not be able to join NATO before the end of the Russian invasion. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year has galvanised the Western military alliance, set up almost 75 years ago, to face off against the Soviet Union. 

But members of the military bloc are split over Ukraine, with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg saying all members agree to stick by a 2008 pledge that Ukraine will become a member at some undefined point. 

"We are reasonable people and we understand that we are not going to drag a single NATO country into a war," Zelensky said during a briefing along Estonian President Alar Karis. 

"Therefore, we understand that we will not be members of NATO while this war is going on. Not because we don't want to, but because it's impossible," Zelensky added.

Ukraine is a candidate to join both NATO and the European Union but some European capitals are wary of setting a formal timeline for membership as Russia's invasion continues.

Joining NATO would mean Ukraine would be covered by the alliance's Article 5 collective defence clause that obliges all members to help defend it if attacked. 

Friday's comments were a rare admission by the Ukrainian president, who has stepped up pressure on NATO and the European Union to open their doors to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's invasion in February, 2022.

On Thursday, Zelensky told a summit in Moldova that any doubts European leaders show before admitting Kyiv into the NATO alliance will embolden Russia to attack more countries. 

An option being weighed is major powers offering Ukraine bilateral security assurances in the years before it becomes a full NATO member. 

** Ukraine repels new Russian air barrage as Moscow contends with cross-border attacks

Ukraine fended off 36 Russian air attacks in and around the capital overnight while pro-Kyiv Russian fighters said they were battling Russian forces for a second day inside Russia, trading blame with Moscow for the deaths of two civilians.

Russia has launched about 20 waves of attacks on Kyiv since the beginning of May, in a surge that Ukraine says appears aimed at derailing its preparations for a major counter-offensive to try to end Russia's invasion.

A child was one of two people injured by falling debris in a region outside the Ukrainian capital as air defences shot down what the air force said on Friday were 15 Russian cruise missiles and 21 drones.

"The occupiers are not stopping their attempts to terrorise the Ukrainian capital with strike drones and missiles," the Ukrainian government said.

Russian officials reported cross-border shelling from several areas of northern Ukraine on Friday in the latest sign that Kyiv is starting to push back beyond its borders after more than 15 months of all-out Russian assault.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region said two people had been killed and four wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled a road in the town of Maslova Pristan near the Ukrainian border. Shell fragments had struck passing cars.

"Two women were travelling in one of them. They died from their injuries on the spot," governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

Gladkov said two people had been wounded and an industrial facility had caught fire after shelling in the town of Shebekino.

Shebekino suffered heavy bombardment on Thursday as well as a cross-border incursion, Russian officials said.

Russia said on Thursday it had repelled a second attempted incursion into the Belgorod border region in just over a week by what it casts as pro-Ukrainian militants. Ukraine denies involvement.

The Freedom of Russia Legion blamed Russia for the shelling of cars on Telegram, while posting images of what it said was one of its tanks in the nearby Russian village of Novaya Tavolzhanka and soldiers taking cover behind a wall during a gunfight.

"Near Tavolzhanka, the enemy destroyed a Renault car with civilians, mistaking it for a car with our sabotage group. At least two civilians were killed, and this is a direct consequence of the lack of professionalism of Putin's army," the Legion said on the Telegram messaging app.

The group describes itself as Russians fighting President Vladimir Putin's government to create a Russia that would be part of the "free world". Along with the Russian Volunteer Corps founded by a far-right Russian nationalist, it says they are Russian volunteers attacking under their own steam, and not on the orders of Ukraine.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine’s backers running out of available weapons – UK

Western nations’ military stockpiles are being depleted, forcing them to seek armaments elsewhere to prop up Ukraine, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned. He also downplayed Kiev’s hopes of joining NATO in the foreseeable future.

In an interview with The Washington Post published on Friday, Wallace commended the West for continuing to send defense aid to Ukraine amid its military standoff with Russia. However, the minister acknowledged that “we have seen reality, which is that we are all running out” of weapons and equipment that can be donated.

The UK and other nations are increasingly being forced to purchase arms on the international market for Ukraine, as opposed to tapping into their existing stockpiles, the official explained.

When asked about the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO, Wallace warned against overpromising to aspirants such as Kiev.

“We have to be realistic and say, ‘It’s not going to happen at Vilnius; It’s not going to happen anytime soon,’” the secretary insisted, referring to a NATO summit slated for this July in Lithuania’s capital.

Wallace revealed that several nations were prepared to sign bilateral or multilateral “mutual defense pacts” with Ukraine as an alternative to membership in the US-led military bloc.

However, the British cabinet minister expressed optimism over the much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, predicting that Kiev could retake Crimea by the end of this year.

Media reports emerged in late January that a senior US general had privately told Defense Secretary Wallace that the British Armed Forces were no longer considered a top-level military.

Anonymous sources cited in the articles warned that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak risked failing in his role as a “wartime prime minister” unless he beefed up London’s defense budget and took several other measures.

In early April, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius acknowledged that his own country’s army was facing similar problems, and would not be able to bridge gaps in funding and supplies by 2030. He also rejected the idea of sending more arms to Ukraine from Berlin’s stockpiles.

In March, Germany’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Hoegl concluded that the “Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since February 24, 2022.”

She pointed out that donations of howitzers, multiple rocket launchers and Leopard tanks to Ukraine had left “big holes” in Germany’s own military stockpiles.

AFP/Reuters/RT