(Three minute read)

NATO is a defensive alliance of 31 countries from Europe and North America. Ukraine is a NATO partner country, which means that it cooperates closely with NATO but it is not covered by the security guarantee in the Alliance’s founding treaty.

If Ukraine was to join while engaged in a war (or indeed any other country) Article 5, of the North Atlantic Treaty’s which says that an armed attack against one or more NATO members shall be considered an attack against them all, would plunge the world into a global war.

There is no doubt that we are going to have to pay the considerable price of a more militarized Europe for decades to come, but for NATO to be putting pressure on its members, by allowing the Ukraine to become a member while engaged in a war (legal or not) it is inviting its members to engage in all out war against Russia is unimageable, and away beyond its remit.

Yes military assistance can continue, and even increase, without admitting Ukraine to NATO.

Up to now NATO was purely defensive alliance an organisation, it does not directly provide weapons or ammunition to Ukraine, however individual NATO member countries are sending weapons, ammunition and many types of light and heavy military equipment, including anti-tank and air defence systems, howitzers, drones and tanks.

To date, NATO Allies have provided billions of euros’ worth of military equipment to Ukraine. Allied forces are also training Ukrainian troops to use this equipment. All of this is making a difference on the battlefield every day, helping Ukraine to uphold its right of self-defence, which is enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

Of course it is only right that any country can express its desire to be part of NATO or not.

But no country at war or not, has the right to demand membership, so all of this talk of securing membership is just political verbal.

Why ?

Because no matter how one looks at NATO membership for Ukraine, while its defensive war with Russia continued, its chances of securing membership  would necessitate direct U.S. involvement.

Even the clustered mind of American Presidents or the Russian warped mind of Putin’s would not want this to happen.

The territory of contemporary Ukraine “used to belong to several empires or states, so some versions of Ukrainian identity do not even have anything to do with Russia at all.

The two countries’ shared heritage goes back more than a thousand years to a time when Kyiv, now Ukraine’s capital, was at the center of the first Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, the birthplace of both Ukraine and Russia.

Over the past 10 centuries, Ukraine has repeatedly been carved up by competing powers.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent nation.

The Soviet Union is gone — and in the post-Soviet era, Ukrainian sentiment has only continued to sour on Russia, especially after its occupation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent annexation.

Crimea was occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014, followed shortly after by a separatist uprising in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas that resulted in the declaration of the Russian-backed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Today, the two countries find themselves in conflict yet again, fault lines that reflect the region’s tumultuous history.

We must not wait until the end of the war to embrace Ukraine unfortunately is an aspiration for the birds.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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