This week’s Nato summit will embolden Putin

The Nato summit in Vilnius has not helped Ukraine. Rather than facilitating the country’s swift accession into Nato, the alliance introduced conditions for membership called the ‘Annual National Programme’: a fudge, in other words.

Nato leaders said they would continually ‘regularly assess progress… on [Ukraine’s] path towards future membership’. Ukraine would be invited to join the alliance only once ‘conditions are met’, the document stated. Those conditions are Ukraine’s progress on democratic and security sector reforms. Volodymyr Zelensky, who nearly lost his temper, said that Ukrainians would like the allies to be more specific. 

Kyiv had prepared for the likelihood of not receiving an immediate invitation to Nato membership, as the US and Germany have hinted their opposition. The White House’s stance could be explained by the desire to exchange peace for Ukraine’s non-membership in Nato in any negotiations with Russia. Zelensky has previously explored this path, but such an offer failed to deter Putin from invading last February. Zelensky