Zelensky expected to crash NATO summit as alliance grapples over Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with NATO leaders this week as heads of state converge on the Baltic state of Lithuania for a two-day summit.

Zelensky’s visit to Vilnius will come on Wednesday, the last day of proceedings, Bloomberg reported.

The 45-year-old previously pressed NATO for clarity on whether Ukraine can eventually join the Atlantic alliance.

Ahead of the summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who recently received a one-year term extension, stressed that the meeting would not result in Ukraine being invited to become the bloc’s 32nd member.

Other NATO leaders have all but ruled out allowing the war-torn country to become a member until its conflict with Russia ends — though the topic of Ukraine will still dominate discussion.

“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” President Biden told CNN on Sunday.

“We’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory,” he added. “It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.”

A handful of top lawmakers and foreign policy luminaries in the US have backed NATO membership for Ukraine.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), for instance, is throwing his weight behind a resolution pushing for the besieged nation to join the alliance, a move that sparked backlash from within Graham’s own party.

To the chagrin of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO hasn’t permanently ruled out the possibility of a future Ukraine membership in accordance with its open-door policy.

Admission of Ukraine into the alliance at the moment would almost certainly drag the other member nations into the hot conflict with nuclear-armed Russia under Article 5 of its treaty.

Still, the alliance has rallied around Ukraine’s efforts to stave off Russian invaders on the battlefield and some members contend that it deserves a seat at the Brussels table.

“Ukraine deserves membership in NATO,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during his meeting with Zelensky on July 7. “No one will lose from the advent of a just peace. We will provide all assistance so that Ukraine gets back on its feet.”

Erdogan has butted heads with his NATO counterparts in the past, and his government is stalling Sweden’s bid to join the alliance over concerns such as support for Kurdish groups.

Zelensky has already indicated that he wants Ukraine to join NATO once the war with Russia ends. He has also acknowledged that membership is unlikely until the war is resolved.

That possibility seems to have incentivized Russia to prolong the conflict in order to hamper NATO expansion on its doorstep.

Last month, in a speech to the German Parliament, Chancellor Olaf Scholz underscored Zelensky’s acknowledgment that Ukraine won’t be able to join NATO so long as the war rages on.

“We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz said at the time. “I suggest we focus on the top priority in Vilnius, namely strengthening the combat power of Ukraine.”

More recently, Scholz expressed interest in Biden’s pitch for applying the US framework of long-term military support for Israel to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the bloc create a “path” for Ukraine’s ascension into the world’s most powerful alliance, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — who met with Biden at Downing Street on Monday — previously voiced hope that eventually “Ukraine will become a member of NATO.”

On Friday, the Biden administration announced it was sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine, after acknowledging the US military is low on 155mm artillery shells and other systems. Cluster bombs are banned in over 100 countries — including by several NATO members — and are known to pose grave risks to civilians.