Mark Rutte refrains from commenting on possibility of inviting Ukraine to NATO

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte refrained from commenting on the possibility of inviting Ukraine to the Alliance, instead emphasizing that allies must enhance military assistance to Ukraine so that it can, if it chooses, negotiate with Russia from a position of strength.

He made these remarks today in Brussels at a press conference before the start of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers. This is how the NATO leader responded to a question from Ukrinform about the conditions under which NATO troops might appear on Ukrainian territory.

"The meeting within next two days will very much concentrate on how to make sure that Ukraine, whenever it decides to enter into peace talks, will do so from the position of strength. And to get there, it is crucial that more military aid will be bumped into Ukraine. Therefore I am happy that all the countries that I’ve just listed have announced military aid going into Ukraine, including many European allies and, of course, also the United States. That is the most crucial thing we have to do now... That will be a step-by-step approach," said Rutte.

He also refrained from directly answering questions from the press regarding the likelihood of Ukraine receiving an invitation to join NATO.

"Allies have agreed that the future of Ukraine is in NATO. During the Washington summit, we agreed on the irreversible path towards NATO. Before and after the Washington summit, allies have been working on building a bridge, which consists, for example, of individual bilateral security agreements between allies and Ukraine, but also the implementation of all the decisions agreed in Washington. This is happening step by step. But I’d think that we have to concentrate, and we will concentrate for the next two days very much, on what is necessary now. And what is necessary now to make sure that military aid will go to Ukraine," the NATO Secretary General noted.

As previously reported, today in Brussels, the two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers began, with one of the main topics being the increase in support for Ukraine, as well as countering hybrid attacks from Russia and other totalitarian regimes against NATO countries.