Former Ambassador to the UK assessed the prospects of Ukraine's accession to NATO. Video

The North Atlantic Treaty allows NATO to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance within the 1991 borders, but to extend the bloc's joint defense to our territory gradually, diplomat Vadym Prystaiko believes. He refers to Article 6, which specifies specific lands and objects that fall under the rule "an attack on one is an attack on all."

In an interview with OBOZ.UA, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK in 2020-2023 compared our public statement about our desire to join NATO to a boxer who has "opened up." That is, we have recognized that we are choosing a specific security alliance and rejecting others.

"You have declared that you are going. And you have to understand that either you complete this path and become a member of the Alliance, and you are covered by the nuclear umbrella of the Alliance and the United States, or you – like us – say it, but do not do enough. For different reasons," the expert said.

"We have not done enough with you. We haven't fought corruption, we haven't fought inefficiency, we haven't built up our armed forces, we haven't reformed them. Also, our partners who did not want us there acted under the influence of Russia, acted in their own interests (the same as Hungary). It doesn't matter now. What matters is that we have remained where we are: we only declared and set ourselves up for this attack, without actually having sufficient opportunities to defend ourselves. It was not a good version of diplomacy," the former ambassador believes.

He does not believe that now a simple invitation (rather than joining) can scare the Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin away from Ukraine.

"I have been involved in NATO all my diplomatic life. And I want to say that simply inviting is not only not enough, it will not happen. If you are a bureaucrat, and not just a diplomat, you need to get into the so-called North Atlantic (or Washington) Treaty, the basis of NATO. And there is Article 10, which is very simply written (in fact, the document is very short, and I advise all Ukrainians to read it; everyone talks about Article 5, but no one has ever read it). So is Article 10. Article 10 says that a country can be invited by joint agreement," Prystaiko said.

That is, the decision to invite Kyiv should be a collective one. Relatively speaking, US President Joe Biden cannot invite us alone.

Answering the question about the "German option" of joining NATO for our country, the diplomat emphasized that he does not like it when people talk about joining "in parts," it is better to use the term "gradually."

He recalled Article 6 of the NATO treaty. It defines the geography of the Alliance's defense.

"Using the mechanism of Article 6, we can say that Ukraine as a state is invited and becomes a member of the Alliance, but NATO's military responsibility is for the territory defined by Article 6," the expert said.

In his opinion, it is theoretically possible to do this, but the question is the political power and political desire of the partners.

As reported by OBOZ.UA:

– According to a recent poll, Ukrainians almost equally support two main security strategies: nuclear weapons or joining NATO.

– Diplomat Andriy Veselovsky reminded that Ukrainians needed to "mature" to see their country as a part of the North Atlantic Alliance in the future. Until the 2020s – even after Russia's attack in 2014 – the word "NATO" was a "swear word" for many.

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