Ukraine’s Nato limbo is set to continue

As the Nato summit on international security opens this week in Vilnius, one obvious issue will be the success or otherwise of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. Apart from the liberation of a few villages, where are the victories earlier forecast by figures like head of military intelligence Kirill Budanov, who predicted the Ukrainian army would be in Crimea by the end of spring? Hopes of a quick push to the Azov sea, inspired by the retaking of Kharkhiv last September, have hit a sandbar this time round: denser Russian defence lines and widespread use of landmines. Come autumn, the weather will be against the Ukrainians too, the muddy season making a counter-offensive more and more beleaguered. Is anything for the Ukrainians going right?

Perhaps all this partly accounts for the level of resentment at the West expressed by some top Ukrainian officials. Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny has voiced frustration that Ukraine, though expected to claw back territory from the occupying Russians, still hasn’t received modern fighter jets; while regarding the possibility of Nato membership, president Zelensky has complained that: ‘If we’re not acknowledged and given a signal in Vilnius, I believe there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit.