President Trump does not support NATO membership for Ukraine, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, said on Wednesday, in a significant blow to the country’s hopes of eventually joining the mutual-defense alliance.
Ukraine has made membership in NATO a key strategic aim, based on the idea that the alliance’s blanket of protection would guard against future Russian aggression.
But even before this week’s events, membership in NATO was a distant dream for Ukraine. NATO countries have supported Ukraine with military aid, but have shown little appetite for taking on a new member that could potentially draw them into a direct war with Russia.
In his second term, Mr. Trump — who has questioned NATO’s relevance and even threatened to withdraw from the alliance — is moving even further from the idea that Ukraine could join the group in the future.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, speaking at a security conference in Munich on Feb. 14, appeared to accept that the U.S. did not support Ukraine joining NATO.
“The United States, they never saw us in NATO,” he said. “They just spoke about it.”
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Publish date : 2025-02-14 08:57:00
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