Zelensky says ‘uncertainty’ over Ukraine’s NATO membership motivates Moscow to continue ‘terror’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that uncertainty over whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance will offer admission to Ukraine motivates Russia to continue “terror” in its war on Kyiv. 

“It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance,” Zelensky said. “This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror.”

“Uncertainty is weakness,” the Kyiv leader added.

Zelensky’s comments come as NATO leaders gather in Lithuania for the alliance’s fourth summit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

President Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg talked Tuesday about Ukraine joining the alliance. Biden said on Sunday that Ukraine wasn’t ready for NATO membership. 

The president also said he doesn’t think there’s “unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war.”

Biden is set to have a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of the summit.

NATO member Turkey on Monday agreed to allow Sweden into NATO after delaying the addition that would be the 32nd member nation.

Zelensky on Tuesday said Ukraine has “received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine” and bashed NATO for not setting a timeline for Ukraine’s ascension into the alliance.

“It’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president added.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that Ukraine shouldn’t be admitted to NATO immediately because doing so would put all the allies at war with Russia under the treaty’s provision that an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all.