Ukraine has waited for an invitation to NATO for years. Long before 2022’s Russian invasion, and even before Moscow claimed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Kyiv has sought to join the West’s premier military alliance. And NATO, for its part, has sought to welcome Ukraine into its ranks—eventually.
In 2008, at a gathering in Bucharest, the alliance promised Ukraine could someday become a NATO member. “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO,” said a statement from NATO leaders. “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO,” and “we make clear that we support these countries’ applications” for the membership process.
This week, as alliance leaders assemble once more, Ukrainian accession to NATO has yet to be realized. And after a year and a half of war on Ukrainian soil, the question of bringing Kyiv into the NATO fold is more pressing than ever: Should NATO make good on its promise? Should Ukraine become a formal NATO ally instead of a unique recipient of members’ largesse?
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