Zaluzhnyi stated that he does not consider Ukraine’s movement towards NATO membership in its current format to be promising. He noted that for many years he has been involved in transitioning the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Alliance standards and has repeatedly heard promises about Ukraine’s future accession.
“I know NATO really well. For about 12 years, I personally worked on making sure we met NATO standards, and every year I heard tales about how we would join NATO any day now. Unfortunately, we will never actually join,” Zaluzhnyi said.
At the same time, he explained his position by stating that, in his opinion, the current structure of NATO does not correspond to the challenges that have arisen since Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
Zaluzhnyi stated that Ukraine cannot simply join the organization with its current approaches. According to him, the problem lies not only in the accession process but also in the need to renew the Alliance itself.
He also expressed the opinion that NATO will likely remain in its current format in the coming years, while Ukraine needs faster and more modern solutions in the field of security.
At the same time, the general emphasized that Ukraine is interested in cooperation with NATO countries through access to critical technologies. Among such areas, he named anti-ballistic systems, space capabilities, and other defense technologies.
What new formats does Zaluzhnyi propose instead of NATO
In the context of future security guarantees for Ukraine, Zaluzhnyi stated that Kyiv could focus on new defense alliances. According to him, one of the options could be a European military security bloc.
He separately positively assessed the possibility of Ukraine’s participation in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), which is led by the UK.
He said Ukraine will be tied to blocs and alliances that will likely be formed. Most likely, they will be talking about a European military security bloc.
According to Zaluzhnyi, the JEF has had management bodies in place since 2015, but Ukraine has not yet worked enough on integration into this format.
At the same time, it should be noted that the JEF is currently not an analogue of NATO and does not provide for a collective defense mechanism or automatic commitments to protect its members.
Context of the statement
The topic of Ukraine’s accession to NATO has noticeably stalled. Even at the recent Alliance summit in Ankara, this issue was not raised, despite the presence of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
In addition, back in November 2025, Ukraine received the status of an enhanced partner of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). This is the first state that is not a member of the grouping but has received such a status.