Ukraine Must Prevail Against Russia Before Joining NATO, Stoltenberg Says

The Trends Journal has said since the start of the war that Ukraine has no chance against Russia and should negotiate for a peaceful resolution

In the weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO officials made it clear that Ukraine was not a member, so the alliance would not come to its defense, at least militarily.

Russia stated clearly before the war that Kyiv’s NATO membership was a red line. The West had been training Ukrainian troops and supplying weapons for years but Moscow refused to allow the U.S. to set up a military outpost at its border.

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The theory in the West before the war was that Russian President Vladimir Putin was bluffing — despite the massive troop buildup. When Russian forces finally did begin its “special military operation,” the Western media provided a megaphone to NATO leaders who insisted that the Russian military failed and was in disarray.

Zelensky, an actor by trade, was telegenic and provided made-for-Fox-News lines like, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

The Western establishment was hooked. NATO promised to provide Ukraine with weapons to help even the battlefield, training, and intelligence which would only make victory all the more certain given the crushing sanctions that were imposed.

We all know how this all turned out.

Ukraine is losing and Russia has a top destroyer and nuclear submarine in Cuba. (Didn’t Ukraine sink the Russian fleet?)

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO head, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that it is vital for the alliance to make sure that Ukraine prevails against Russia.

“And without that, of course, there is no [NATO] membership issue to be discussed. We need to ensure that Ukraine prevails – that’s an absolute minimum for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance,” he said, according to RT, the Russian outlet.

Zelensky admitted in May that a Ukrainian victory is a prerequisite for membership in the alliance.

Zelensky announced in 2022 that he filed an expedited application to join NATO in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin annexing four occupied regions in the country, but the alliance did not accept the request.

“De facto, we have already proven interoperability with the Alliance’s standards, they are real for Ukraine — real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction,” Zelensky said at the time. “Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure. Under a procedure consistent with our significance for the protection of our entire community. Under an accelerated procedure.”

Zelensky has said that the U.S. will be faced with two bleak choices if Kyiv loses the war with Russia. He said the U.S. could either decide to join the fight or sit back and watch NATO, the alliance that has been around since 1949, unravel.

Zelensky made the comment in June after being asked about the possibility that the 2024 presidential election in the U.S. could result in someone less willing than President Joe Biden to bankroll Ukrainians.

Zelensky, who needs to rely on fear tactics, said, “Is he ready to go to war? To fight, to send his kids? Are they ready to die? Because anyway, they will have to do this if NATO gets involved.”

Putin has said that Ukraine is merely a chess piece for the West in its effort to defeat Russia either on the battlefield or economically.

“The point is not that they are helping our enemy, but that they are our enemy,” he said. “They are solving their own problems with [Ukraine’s] hands, that’s what it’s all about.”

He said it is his hope that the conflict will end, but it will have to be on Russia’s terms.

“We have no desire to fight forever,” he said. “But we are not going to give up our positions either.”

Zelensky ran for office in 2019 as a peace candidate but in September 2020, he approved Ukraine's new National Security Strategy, “which provides for the development of the distinctive partnership with NATO with the aim of membership in NATO. In September 2022, following Russia’s illegal attempted annexations of Ukrainian territory, Ukraine reiterated its request for NATO membership,” according to the alliance.

TRENDPOST: Agree or disagree with Vladimir Putin’s statements, in the Western media there is just one side to the Ukraine War: Russia aggression. 

Totally ignored, as we have greatly detailed over the decades, is the United States and NATO actions that were, to Russia, moves of aggression.

Long forgotten was the U.S. and NATO’S pledge not to expand into Eastern Europe following the deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification.