German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said late Thursday that now is not the right time for NATO allies to make a decision on Ukraine’s entry into a military alliance.

“The door is open (…), but now is not the time to make decisions,” Pistorius told the German public broadcaster ZDF, explaining that against the background of the war unleashed by Russia for almost 14 months, there can be no serious discussions.

The allies should weigh very “thoroughly” what exactly they will formally offer Kyiv, he continued. “Decisions must be made in cold blood, not in the heat of the moment,” he insisted.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pledged further support to Ukraine in its bid to join the alliance during a visit to Kyiv yesterday, the first visit since the start of the war.

But there are divisions within the alliance over whether to offer alliance membership immediately, especially at the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in July in Vilnius, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for on Thursday.

Mr. Stoltenberg’s visit to Kyiv was the first since the beginning of the war. The West, of course, supplies Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. Russia, which accuses the West of pulling the strings of the conflict, claims that NATO countries are becoming increasingly involved in the conflict.

“Threat” to Russia

Reacting to Stoltenberg’s visit to Ukraine, the Russian presidency reiterated that among the goals of the war it unleashed in February 2022 against a neighboring country, in addition to its “demilitarization”, is to prevent it from joining the Western military alliance.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed, according to the Interfax news agency, that Moscow always views Ukraine’s accession to NATO as a threat that will create “a serious, great danger to our country, its security” on its borders.

In addition, the Kremlin spokesman dismissed claims by a Ukrainian official that it was not Russian President Vladimir Putin but his henchmen who had recently traveled to areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops in the Kherson and Lugansk regions, which Moscow claims it has annexed. the community does not recognize – a few days ago. For Mr. Peskov, this version is “rather strange.”

It has not been proven that Mr. Putin’s “bodyguard” is actually being used. Earlier, the Russian president even stated that this idea was proposed to him for security reasons, but he rejected it.

Source: RES-IPE