UK’s Johnson: Ukraine not joining NATO ‘any time soon’

By AP and ToI Staff 16 March 2022, 11:43 am

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks to British troops stationed in Poland on a NATO mission of enhancement of the alliance's eastern flank in Wesola, near Warsaw Poland, on February 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Ukraine is not going to join NATO “any time soon,” after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged his country would not become part of the Western military alliance.

Johnson — one of the most vocal Western supporters of Ukraine — says “the reality of the position” is that “there is no way Ukraine is going to join NATO any time soon.” But he says the decision had to be for Ukraine to make.

President Vladimir Putin has long depicted Ukraine’s NATO aspirations as a threat to Russia, something the alliance denies.

Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine realized it could not join NATO, his most explicit acknowledgment that the goal, enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution, was unlikely to be met.

It came as Russia and Ukraine held a new round of talks, with Zelensky saying Wednesday that Russian demands were becoming “more realistic” and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressing “hope” a compromise could be found.