Ukraine is too corrupt to join NATO, the US is set to tell leader Volodymyr Zelensky in a major blow to his nation’s security ambitions.
The defence bloc will request at its annual summit next week, in Washington DC, that Ukraine takes ‘additional steps before formal membership talks progress’, a senior US official told the Telegraph.
Zelensky has been pushing for NATO ascension after Russia‘s brutal invasion ends to protect itself from future invasion, as the pact compels its members to militarily defend allies if they are attacked.
But corruption, among other issues, has been a major thorn in the Ukrainian leader’s side, blocking further relations with the West from developing.
In 2022, after Ukraine formally applied for EU ascension, the EU Commission wrote of Ukraine that while ‘preventing and combating corruption has been particularly high on the Ukrainian reform agenda since the Revolution of Dignity’ in 2014, ‘corruption remains a serious challenge.’
Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) has been pushing for NATO ascension after Russia ‘s brutal invasion ends in order to protect itself from future invasion
The defence bloc will request at its annual summit next week, in Washington DC , that Ukraine takes ‘additional steps before formal membership talks progress’ (File image)
Vladimir Putin (pictured) is meeting with China in Kazakhstan today to discuss defence and security
Joe Biden’s (pictured) administration says Ukraine is still too corrupt to join NATO
Zelensky appears to be tackling the problem head on, particularly in the military. In September, he fired all six of his deputy defence ministers with no explanation weeks after dismissing his top defence minister.
The US has recognised his efforts, with a State Department official telling the Telegraph: ‘We have to step back and applaud everything that Ukraine has done in the name of reforms over the last two-plus years.’
‘As they continue to make those reforms, we want to commend them, we want to talk about additional steps that need to be taken, particularly in the area of anti-corruption. It is a priority for many of us around the table,’ the source added.
NATO has given Ukraine a list of reforms it will be expected to carry out before it qualifies for membership, which officials said Zelensky was working through.
‘That’s something Nato has been doing quietly under the radar that helps them get closer to membership’, a source said.
While Ukraine is working on furthering its relations with the West, Putin is doing the same with China. The despot is meeting with Xi Jinping at a Eurasian security and defence club in Kazakhstan today.
While Ukraine is working on furthering its relations with the West, Putin is doing the same with China
An infantrymen training with a T-80 tank is seen as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues in Donetsk Oblast
Infantry secure the area for the 3rd Assault Brigade at sunset on July 1, 2024 in Kharkiv Region
Putin and the Chinese president have expanded the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a club founded in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian powers, to include India, Iran and Pakistan as a counterweight to the West.
Putin will hold a series of bilateral meetings on Wednesday on the sidelines of the July 3-4 SCO summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana, the Kremlin said.
He is due to meet Xi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Pakistan before an informal dinner hosted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
India said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected in Moscow later this month, will not attend. He is sending Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.
Russia and China regard the SCO, which promotes common approaches to external security threats such as drug trafficking and focuses on countering any domestic instability, as a means to project their influence across Asia.
“The leaders of the SCO member countries will discuss the current state and prospects for further deepening multifaceted cooperation within the organisation and improving its activities,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
At last year’s virtual summit, the group issued a statement critical of what it called the negative impact of “unilateral and unlimited expansion of global missile defence systems by certain countries or groups of countries”, without directly referring to NATO expansion and Western military assistance to Ukraine.
