Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former top military commander who now serves as ambassador to the United Kingdom, has publicly declared that Ukraine will never join NATO. Speaking at a meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors on Monday, Zaluzhnyi said the country cannot meet the military standards required for alliance membership.
“I know NATO really well. For about 12 years I personally worked on making sure we met NATO standards, and every year I heard tales about how we would join NATO any day now,” Zaluzhnyi was quoted as telling the gathering by Ukrainian news website Evropeiska Pravda. “Unfortunately, we will never actually join.”
Zaluzhnyi went further, describing NATO membership as “impossible with the level of development that the armed forces of Ukraine have” and calling the alliance “an organisation guided by World War 2 doctrines.” His remarks represent the most blunt assessment of NATO prospects from a senior Ukrainian official to date.
Ukraine has enshrined NATO and EU membership as strategic goals in its constitution, a provision adopted in 2019. However, Kyiv has acknowledged that not all alliance members currently support its accession. The comments from Zaluzhnyi, who was dismissed as Ukraine’s top commander in 2024 over differences with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on war strategy, carry significant weight given his deep familiarity with the NATO accession process.
The statement comes as the broader war dynamic shows shifting momentum. According to an analysis by Agence France-Presse based on Institute for the Study of War data, Russia gained less than 40 square kilometers in July, down sharply from an average of 405 square kilometers per month a year earlier. Ukraine’s frontlines were largely unchanged, with Russian gains concentrated in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy regions.
The diplomatic backdrop remains complex. Zelenskyy has been lobbying Washington for additional Patriot air defence missiles while simultaneously conducting a government shakeup that included dismissing US ambassador Olga Stefanishyna. The shakeup also encompassed replacements of the prime minister and defence minister.
Analysts note that Zaluzhnyi’s remarks, while stark, largely reflect the existing diplomatic reality. Western leaders have privately indicated for months that Ukraine’s NATO accession is not feasible while the country remains at war, and public discussion of a timeline has been avoided since the alliance’s 2023 summit in Vilnius.
Source: The Guardian, Evropeiska Pravda
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