The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), thanks to the technology and methods of NATO, have actually become the army of a military alliance. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stated this on February 24 in an interview with the newspaper El Confidential.
“In fact, the Ukrainian army is already a NATO army, because all our equipment is NATO equipment. We have implemented NATO standards in our armed forces,” he said.
The Ukrainian army has received significant combat experience and can pass it on to the armies of the alliance, Shmyhal added. Therefore, in his opinion, Ukraine will become a valuable member of the North Atlantic Alliance in the near future. He also stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine intend to return Ukraine to the 1991 borders.
Shmyhal also recalled that Ukraine also seeks to get into the European Union (EU). He expressed confidence that she will do this in the next two years, as she completes the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission.
The day before, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace did not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine by any NATO country. He specified that military planes would not be sent to Kyiv in the short or medium term.
Earlier, on February 21, Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Pavel Yablonsky noted that, in agreement with NATO, Ukraine can receive any weapon. According to him, Poland “will do everything so that Ukraine receives any weapons that it needs for defense.”
On February 19, columnist Hal Brands, in an article for Bloomberg, expressed the opinion that Ukraine will not become part of NATO in the foreseeable future. At the same time, he noted that Ukraine has an option to keep the country as an ally of the West and continue the supply of weapons and heavy equipment to the country.
A day earlier, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk said that Ukraine expects to receive an invitation to join NATO in June. The NATO summit in Vilnius is scheduled for June 11-12, 2023.
Earlier in February, former Vice President of the European Commission and ex-European Commissioner Günther Verheugen expressed the opinion that the West deliberately crossed a line unacceptable for Russia by offering Ukraine 15 years ago NATO membership.
On September 30, 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the country had applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis. However, Assistant to the US President for National Security Jake Sullivan stressed that the expansion of the alliance is now untimely.
