Ukraine should at least thank the Western countries a little for supplying the necessary weapons to the Ukrainian army. This was stated by British Defense Minister Ben Wallace during a speech at the NATO public forum in Vilnius on July 12.
Thus, he commented on the criticism of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky against the alliance due to the lack of a specific time frame for Kiev's membership.
"Like it or not, people want to see a little gratitude. <...> Sometimes you ask countries to give up their own weapons stocks," he said.
In addition, Wallace said that he had to force "lawmakers on Capitol Hill in America" to send Ukraine the necessary military equipment, while negotiations were not easy.
He also recalled that during his last year's visit to Ukraine in Kiev, he was "handed", as in a store, a list of all necessary equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This offended Wallace, and he said that Britain and other allied countries of Ukraine are not open to such requests.
Earlier in the day, the US delegation got angry because of Zelensky's words about the uncertain wording about inviting the country to NATO. It is clarified that the members of the US delegation "were furious" because of the tweet of the Ukrainian leader. Some NATO politicians said that Zelensky thus sought to put pressure on the alliance members and gather more allies.
We are talking about Zelensky's statement on Twitter, in which he criticized the alliance and its position on possible membership of Ukraine, calling the lack of specific deadlines "unprecedented and absurd." He noted that the vague wording concerns not only the accession, but also the invitation of the country to NATO.
On July 11, at the first meeting, the members of the military-political bloc published a communique in which the allies decided that they would invite Ukraine when they reached unanimity on this issue, and the conditions would become suitable. Thus, the summit document does not reflect either the schedule or the date of Kiev's accession to the alliance.
On September 30, 2022, Ukraine applied for membership in NATO in an accelerated manner. Then Vladimir Zelensky said that in fact Ukraine is already in NATO and meets the standards of the alliance.
