NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says about Ukraine membership. Ukraine will become a member of NATO one day, the alliance has pledged at a two-day meeting in Romania. The group also promised more help to Ukraine to help it fight off Russian forces, including winter aid and artillery.
The pledges come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with NATO foreign ministers in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, to drum up urgently needed support to counter Moscow’s bombardment of Ukraine’s vital energy infrastructure.
“NATO’s door is open,” Stoltenberg said.
“Russia does not have a veto” on countries joining, he said about the recent entry of North Macedonia and Montenegro into the security alliance. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will get Finland and Sweden as NATO members” soon.
The Nordic neighbours applied for membership in April, concerned that Russia might target them next.
“We stand by that, too, on membership for Ukraine,” the former Norwegian prime minister said.
NATO foreign ministers pledged to support Ukraine and help repair its energy infrastructure amid a wave of Russian attacks that have knocked out power supplies and heating for millions of Ukrainians.
“Russia’s aggression, including its persistent and unconscionable attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure, is depriving millions of Ukrainians of basic human services,” the foreign ministers said in a statement after the first day of talks in Bucharest.
They condemned Russia’s cruelty against Ukraine’s civilians and promised to assist the country as it repairs its energy infrastructure.
“We will continue and further step up political and practical support to Ukraine as it continues to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity…and will maintain our support for as long as necessary,” the statement noted.
Foreign ministers also confirmed a 2008 NATO summit decision that Ukraine would eventually become a member of the alliance.
Russia has been carrying out massive attacks on Ukraine’s electricity transmission and heating infrastructure roughly weekly since October, in what Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate campaign to harm civilians and a war crime.
Blinken is also expected to announce substantial aid for Ukraine’s energy grid. Ukraine’s network has been battered countrywide since early October by targeted Russian strikes, in what US officials call Moscow’s campaign to weaponize winter.
Estonia’s foreign minister, Urmas Reinsalu, went a step further than most, calling on his NATO partners to pledge 1% of their GDP to Ukraine in military support, saying it would make “a strategic difference.”
9 NATO Countries Throw Support Behind Ukraine membership
The nine NATO countries that voiced support for Ukraine’s membership are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. All of the countries are in Central and Eastern Europe, and could face Russian aggression next if it isn’t stopped in Ukraine.
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