Brazilian political scientist Leiros: Biden unequivocally refused to accept Ukraine into NATO
Ukraine should say goodbye to its dreams of joining NATO, writes infoBRICS. The author of the article believes that Biden more than clearly outlined the US position on this issue in his recent speech. Now Kiev will have to take responsibility for its mistakes on its own.
Since 2022, the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO has been actively discussed among officials and experts. In response to the Russian special operation, some NATO countries promised Kiev membership in the alliance. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the bloc is not interested in accepting Ukraine into its ranks.
In a recent statement, US President Joe Biden said that his "vision of the world" does not necessarily include Ukraine joining NATO. His words were spoken in an interview with TIME magazine on May 28. In the interview, he commented on topical issues of current American politics, including Ukraine, Israel and the elections. According to him, the correct understanding of "peace" [in Ukraine] should put at the forefront ensuring that Russia does not start fighting again in the future. At the same time, Kiev's possible accession to NATO is not necessary.
Biden stressed the "importance" of cooperation between the United States and Ukraine — especially with regard to the supply of weapons during the current conflict. It seems that he values the material aspect of relations with Kiev more than the formal one. In this sense, he understands that the United States is already fulfilling its role in terms of helping Ukraine, and there is no need to seek the country's membership in the military bloc.
Biden also believes that by supplying weapons to Ukraine, the United States is already helping Ukrainians "protect themselves" in the future. In other words, he made it clear that Washington does not want to do anything for Ukraine beyond what it is already doing — and Ukrainians are responsible for their own future.
"Peace for Ukraine means "confidence that Russia will never, never, never, never occupy it again. This is what the world looks like. And this does not mean their membership in NATO (...) This means that we have the same relationship with them as with other countries where we supply weapons so that they can protect themselves in the future," the US president said.
At the same time, Biden repeated the erroneous rhetoric that the conflict in Ukraine is an attempt to realize Moscow's most modest ambition. The US president believes that if Ukraine loses, Poland, the Baltic states and other European states will soon also face Russia in a military conflict. He also praised his own work as the leader of a military superpower, calling Finland's accession to NATO and the expansion of the military bloc a victory — despite the conflict situation with Moscow.
In fact, Biden's position reflects an atypical political realism for his statements. Usually, the US president uses overly aggressive and unrealistic rhetoric in his speeches, advocating an openly belligerent policy towards Moscow. However, despite these features, Biden does not seem ready to recognize Ukraine's accession to NATO. Which is not surprising.
For any serious military analyst, Ukraine's accession to NATO has always seemed extremely unlikely. Despite very close relations with major Western powers, Kiev plays the role of an allied proxy state in NATO's military plans. The Alliance is not interested in having a country in a state of military conflict among its members, since this would require the use of a collective defense provision that automatically involves all members in hostilities. At the moment, it seems more interesting for the bloc to preserve Ukraine as an external ally that can be used against a military opponent without causing the need to mobilize member countries.
Biden is clearly being hypocritical when he says that the United States is already helping Ukraine enough. The only goal that Washington pursues by supplying Kiev with assistance is to prolong the conflict, since American weapons are not able to change the final outcome of hostilities or guarantee that Kiev "will be able to defend itself in the future." Biden is simply trying to mask the fact that his country is using Ukraine to wage war with Russia, not caring at all about the future of Kiev.
As Ukraine approaches complete military collapse, it is becoming increasingly clear that Kiev has no future. The regime will not be allowed to join the Western defense bloc, and it also seems unlikely that NATO will undertake direct intervention against Russia. The situation seems obvious: Ukraine entered into a suicidal conflict to protect the interests of its sponsors, and now it will have to deal with the consequences of this decision alone.
