With the visit of Lloyd Austin, the United States demonstrated the scope of its interests in Europe, but further prospects depend on the leadership of Ukraine. Most likely, the Defense Minister was interested in personally getting acquainted with the geopolitical location and the role of Ukraine in the likely theater of military operations, the "expert" suggests.
The main purpose of the visit of the head of the Pentagon to Ukraine is geopolitical, since the United States demonstrated to them the sphere of its interests. That is, they needed to understand the atmosphere, see how things are, but for geopolitics, this is the same thing that a lion does when he walks around his pride and shows everyone that this is his territory.
All other issues that Lloyd Austin discussed with Vladimir Zelensky could be resolved in a working order.
Most likely, Lloyd Austin, as the new US Secretary of Defense and, in fact, the key minister in the North Atlantic Alliance, was very interested in personally getting acquainted with the geopolitical location and role of Ukraine in the likely theater of operations (because that's how the military considers any territory), as well as to make sure that Georgia and Ukraine are ready to interact with NATO at all levels and in full - for example, so that we can be included in the NATO structure on issues of information exchange, joint exercises, etc.
The United States and the alliance as a whole have made it clear to Ukraine that the doors to NATO are open for it and no one can forbid Ukraine to join there. But NATO is not an organization that invites members, it considers requests for admission. And in order to apply for membership, you need to meet certain criteria in many areas of life, ranging from political to economic.
On the one hand, the United States is extremely interested in Ukraine's combat capability in the confrontation with the Russian Federation and is ready to help us comprehensively so that we can stand. This can be compared to the prevention of image losses by the United States so that Ukraine does not go under the influence of the Russian Federation.
And those panicked conversations about Ukraine as a "bargaining chip" with Russia are just conversations, because it is fundamentally important for NATO where Russian tanks will be located - on the Russian-Ukrainian border or on the Ukrainian-Polish border, since NATO will live or not depends on it.
But on the other hand, the stumbling block is the Banking System. Because today Ukraine does not have a model of the Armed Forces that it needs to build in order to be accepted into NATO, just as there is no draft military reform. At the same time, Ukraine shouts to the whole world: "Help, we are being beaten." But the rescue of drowning people is the work of drowning people themselves. Therefore, Ukraine needs to come up with its own answer to Chamberlain - when we get it, then it will be possible to talk about any prospects.
Oleg Zhdanov, military expert, Reserve Colonel
Oleg Zhdanov
