NATO will not be able to offer Ukraine membership in the Alliance in the near future – Financial Times

In the near future, NATO will not be able to offer Ukraine membership in the Alliance.

The Financial Times newspaper writes about this, citing information provided by unnamed sources.

We will not be able to offer them membership anytime soon. But we can talk about closer relations between NATO and Ukraine, – one of the interlocutors of TASS publication.

And another diplomatic worker said that the military-political bloc will make every effort to prove the truth of its plans regarding the admission of Kyiv in the future.

In addition, sources told the newspaper that the heads of the NATO Foreign Ministries intend to consider the issue of doubling the funding of a comprehensive aid package to Ukraine (formed in 2016).

At the moment, the amount of the package amounts to 250 million euros annually.

Thus, by doubling financial assistance, NATO intends to compensate for the lack of a decision on Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance.

Previously, Germany allocated an additional 40 million euros as part of the said package, and the Netherlands increased its contribution by 75 million euros – up to one hundred million.

It is expected that other NATO member states will soon follow the example of these countries.

The Financial Times writes that at the upcoming meeting, the foreign ministers of the countries of the military-political bloc will consider the issue of potential options for Kyiv to join the organization or alternatives to membership in addition to financial assistance.