LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Ukraine is not going to join NATO “any time soon”, after the country’s president acknowledged Ukraine would not become part of the Western military alliance.
President Vladimir Putin has long depicted Ukraine’s NATO aspirations as a threat to Russia, something the alliance denies.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine realised it could not join NATO, his most explicit acknowledgment that the goal, enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution, was unlikely to be met.
It came as Russia and Ukraine held a new round of talks, with Zelenskyy saying yesterday that Russian demands were becoming “more realistic”.
Yesterday, Johnson – one of the most vocal Western supporters of Ukraine – said “the reality of the position” is that “there is no way Ukraine is going to join NATO any time soon”. But he said the decision had to be for Ukraine to make.
