Ukraine War: Why Ukraine Cannot Join NATO Yet

Recently there’s been regularly reported since the beginning of the Russian direct invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the Ukrainian state would very much like to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

The main reason the Ukrainian government would like to join NATO is Article 5, which states that there will be Collective Defence means that an attack against one Ally is considered an attack against all Allies.

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty enshrined the principle of collective defence. Unfortunately, it is nonsense to expect Ukraine’s government to join NATO whilst engaged in a war with the Russian Federation.

A requirement to join NATO means there can be no territorial disputes over the nation’s borders actually to join the alliance.

It will take possibly ten years for Ukraine to join NATO due to having to pass the requirements to join the alliance and having to defeat Russia in a war, or Russia is no longer capable of being any serious military threat to Ukraine.

people walking on street — Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Managing Expectations

It may seem cruel that the Western world is not doing more to help Ukraine, with the United States alone having spent more money for Ukrainians to keep fighting the Russians than the entire Russian Federation budget of 2022.

The United States and other democracies part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation face internal issues due to the Culture Wars within the United States of America and other domestic matters.

France is a great example of where integration has failed, according to the journalist and author Andrew Neil, stating there is an ‘underclass in France’ that lives on the outskirts of French cities living in slums.

When people vote in democracies, they vote for their own self-guided and possibly even selfish interests first; this means that most ordinary voters not bordering the Ukrainian and Russian border don’t care for Ukrainians.

For Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, his top priority is liberating Ukrainian territory from Russian aggression, securing the long-term security of his nation by joining NATO and possibly the European Union strengthening his country militarily and economically.

President Zelenskyy what he wants and what he can get is vastly different to the priorities of his allies in corn to the UK former Prime Minister and great wartime leader Winston Churchill he observed, ‘There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them’.

This means that the interests supporting Ukraine in their fight against Russia will put their priorities and national interests first and foremost, particularly during a nation’s electoral cycles.