Estonia’s prime minister has warned western countries not to use bilateral security assurances to “blur” the debate over Ukraine’s bid for Nato membership ahead of the military alliance’s summit next week.
Nato is divided over offering Ukraine a postwar pathway to membership at the summit in Vilnius next week. At the same time the US, UK and EU states are drawing up plans to provide Kyiv with “security commitments” aimed at helping the country defend itself in lieu of alliance accession.
“We need practical, concrete steps on the path to Nato membership,” Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times. “I have the feeling that talking about security guarantees actually blurs the picture . . . the only security guarantee that really works and is much cheaper than anything else is Nato membership.”
Euro-Atlantic security will not be complete without Ukraine being part of the mutual defence pact, she said, urging her allies not to waver and bow to “terrorist” intimidation from Russia.
The proposed commitments being discussed among western capitals are largely based around codifying and pledging a long-term continuation of support already being provided to Ukraine in weaponry, finance and training. Kallas said that was not sufficient to deter Russian aggression.
“This is what we are doing right now, but it doesn’t give you any other additional guarantees,” she said. “The war will not be there when the deterrence is credible.”
Nato agreed in 2008 that Ukraine “would become” a member, but provided no timeline or pathway. Allies are currently negotiating the wording of a summit communique regarding Ukraine’s future membership, with a split between mainly eastern states who want an ambitious pledge, and a group led by the US and Germany that is hesitant.
“There is a majority who think that we have to find a practical way [forward],” Kallas said. “Grey zones are sources of conflict and war. So as long as those countries who want to join the alliance are not allowed to when they feel threatened, then I think that the whole [Euro-Atlantic security] picture is not complete.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that one objective of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine was to stop the former Soviet republic from becoming a member of Nato, claiming that the US would use membership to station weaponry in the country and threaten Russia.
Putin has since threatened to use nuclear weapons in the war, prompting fears in some western capitals of any steps that could escalate the conflict.
Kallas, whose country was annexed by the Soviet Union and joined Nato in 2004 after it regained independence, said that perspective was akin to bowing to terrorist demands.
“I hear a lot [of countries] saying that we shouldn’t do this or that because it provokes Putin or Russia and especially to use nuclear weapons,” she said.
“Those threats are in order to intimidate us. The definition of terrorism is to make us afraid so that we would refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make. And this is what they are trying to do.”