Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/14/ukraine-willing-to-drop-ambitions-to-join-nato-zelenskyy-says

33 Comments

  1. “NATO? That old thing? Sure, we can give that up. But we aim to be a founding member of the European Defence Alliance.”

  2. CatalyticDragon on

    Why does Russia (and therefore the US) want this? Because a ceasefire gives Russia time to rebuild forces and then when they *inevitably* attack again Ukraine won’t have NATO support.

    Ukraine should agree to nothing except a full withdrawal with no conditions and they should continue to seek NATO membership.

  3. I wonder if this is more that NATO isn’t so valuable under Trump especially with Poland’s and Germany’s large armoured vehicle orders

  4. malachiconstantjrjr on

    Like words mean anything to Russia, just say ‘ We won’t join NATO’ then go fucking join NATO. What are they going to do? Invade again and lose another 1.25 million of their population? Something something Warsaw Pact…

  5. It’s good to have this on the table. Ukraine becoming a NATO member especially right now was always a negotiating tactic. Membership usually takes years even after formal application & required reforms are done. During an active war they also cant get it. If they can somehow get real security guarantees by offering this up now it’ll be fine.

  6. If anyone here gets the chance, please watch 2000 Meters to Andriivka. It just came out, and it’s free on YouTube and documents the intense fighting and sacrifices of this war. Published by The AP and PBS, same director as 20 Days in Mariupol. Well worth the 2 hours. 

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4Cgy56slU

  7. That would require changing their constitution. And, AFAIR, Zelenskyy has always maintained that they can’t concede any land because that would require changing their constitution, which requires a referendum.

    So what has changed for him to promise this?

  8. And that’s how you know the war and all efforts to stop Russia have been for nothing.

    A war of attrition they would have won with US support except that Putin has pictures of Trump blowing either a horse or a man named Bubba.

    Meanwhile, time to go to war with Venezuela for some reason. A country that despite Trump and conservative media claims, does not actually produce or smuggle fentanyl into the US.

  9. AlexandbroTheGreat on

    The European countries that matter militarily need to separately conclude a pact with Ukraine if they believe the US is unreliable. Ukrainian forces will be very important to the balance of power in Europe for a long time and the other Europeans  need to worry less about what they will do if Russia attacks Ukraine again and more about locking in Ukrainian participation against Russia if the Baltics are invaded.

  10. Just say whatever you gotta say to get them to leave and you can reconsider later…that’s what they would do.

  11. abc123DohRayMe on

    Trump is ruining NATO anyway. Europe can do up a new treaty organization and invite Ukraine to join.

  12. This is probably obvious to some people but I finally realized that Trump actively undermining NATO / making fun of EU to weaken the alliance was probably to try and steer Ukraine towards this as a bargaining chip.

    Maybe I’m giving the Alzheimer in chief too much credit though.

  13. Ok_Freedom_6864 on

    Ukraine doesn’t need NATO anymore. Their missiles can now reach Moscow, and they have better aim than the Russians. Putin doesn’t want to live in a bunker every night like a rat so he will make a deal pretty fast.

  14. Trump is doing his best to gut NATO so there is no real point in joining a dying organization. Russia is obviously thrilled.

  15. seangraves1984 on

    They left out the part of kyiv cane back with a 20 point counter. One of those points was that would not rescind nato application. This is biased and click bait.

  16. NATO is pretty much europe now, so joining europe would be the same as joining NATO. It would give putin a technical victory point but it would be a completely meaningless victory point.