Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck an appreciative chord during a NATO summit on Wednesday, thanking “all Americans” for the billions of dollars in weapons and support just a day after he said not giving Ukraine a timeframe for NATO membership was “absurd.”
Zelenskyy claimed he was leaving the summit with “support from the leaders and an unambiguous statement that Ukraine will be in NATO,” according to The New York Times.
The Ukrainian president had met with U.S. President Joe Biden during the second day of NATO’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Biden tried to assure Zelenskyy of Ukraine’s eventual acceptance into NATO.
“I look forward to the day when we’re having the meeting celebrating your official, official membership in NATO,” Biden told Zelenskyy, according to Reuters.
However, Biden later said to the press, “The one thing Zelenskyy understands now is that whether or not he’s in NATO now is not relevant, as long as he has the commitments,” per NPR.
For his part, Zelenskyy, who the day before made clear his discontent with not being given a date or plan for NATO membership, sought to express his gratitude.
“I believe that we will be in NATO as soon as the security situation stabilizes. In simple language, when the war ends, Ukraine will definitely be invited to NATO, and Ukraine will definitely become a member of the Union. I have not heard any other opinion today,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet translated into English.
Since NATO members are essentially in a mutual security pact that requires member nations to come to the aid of any other member that is attacked, letting Ukraine in while it is at war could bring NATO into direct conflict with Russia.
Besides thanking the American people, Zelenskyy made a point of thanking the British after Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he warned Ukrainian officials that its allies were “not Amazon” and Ukraine needed to be more grateful for all the support.
“We were always grateful to the UK, prime ministers and the minister of defence because the people are always supporting us,” Zelenskyy subsequently said, according to Reuters.
In response to developments in the NATO summit, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that NATO’s hesitancy to elevate Ukraine to member status is because Poland claims western Ukraine for its own.
“There is now an obvious desire of Poland to invade the western part of Ukraine. This is why Ukraine is not invited to NATO,” she suggested to Al Jazeera in an interview.
Zakharova found the idea that Ukraine was not given an invitation to join NATO because NATO does not want a direct conflict with Russia laughable.
“It is truly funny – you truly believe that NATO is already not at war with Russia – because all the fighters, mercenaries, military instructors, advisers and intelligence data are provided by NATO to the Kyiv regime,” she said. “NATO is certainly involved in the confrontation with Russia.”