Mr. Kirby Is Wrong. President Zelensky Wants Ukraine In NATO Now. Wants NATO Troops In Ukraine, Defending Ukraine, And Fighting Russia. He Has Made No Secret Of His Desire.
Mr. Kirby Is Wrong.
President Zelensky Wants Ukraine Today As A Member Of NATO. He Wants NATO Troops In Ukraine. He Wants NATO Troops To Defend Ukraine. He Wants NATO Troops To Confront Directly The Armed Forces Of The Russian Federation. He Has Made No Secret Of His Desire.
The United States Is A Member Of NATO. That Means Members Of The Armed Forces Of The United States Could Be In Ukraine.
Article Five Of The NATO Charter Does Not Require A NATO Member To Take Up Arms To Defend Another NATO Member.
Because Officials In The Government Of Ukraine Continued In 2022 And Into The Summer Of 2023 To Push Privately And Publicly For Ukraine To Immediately Become A Member Of NATO, Members Were Forced To Become Ever More Vocal In Maintaining Ukraine Would Not Become A Member Of NATO While In A War With The Government Of The Russian Federation Or With Any Non-Stable Border Relationship With The Government Of The Russian Federation.
“We know it’s possible,” referencing Finland and Sweden undertaking the NATO membership accession process. “This is fair. This is also fair for Ukraine.” Volodymyr Zelensky (2019- )
“De facto, we have already made our way into NATO. De facto, we have proven compatibility with alliance standards. De facto. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure… under a procedure consistent with our significance for the protection of our entire community, under an accelerated procedure.” Volodymyr Zelensky (2019- )
The White House
Washington DC
5 March 2024
“MR. KIRBY: I’m not going to parse President Macron’s words. I mean, he certainly has every right and ability to — to speak for himself and his views. All I can do is speak for President Biden, the Commander-in-Chief. And the President has been clear: We have been extraordinarily strong in leading international efforts to support Ukraine for the last few years. We need Congress to help right now — pass that supplemental — so we can continue that strong leadership and support more — a coalition of more than 50 nations that the United States put together to support Ukraine. He’s also been very clear since the very beginning of this war: There’s not going to be U.S. troops on the ground fighting inside Ukraine. And you know what? President Zelenskyy isn’t asking for that. He’s just asking for the tools and capabilities. He’s never asked for foreign troops to fight for his country. He — he and his troops want to do that. But they need the tools, and that’s what we need to help with.”
War Timeline
On 24 February 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation invaded and further invaded the territory of Ukraine in what Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008 and 2012- ), defined as a Special Military Operation [SMO] then on 22 December 2022 he redefined as a war. The initial invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation was in part from the territory of Belarus.
The war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine did not commence on 24 February 2022. The roots began their trajectories on 20 February 2014 when the armed forces of the Russian Federation invaded the Crimean Peninsula and the area known as the Donbas Region (Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast).
The government of Ukraine believes Brussels, Belgium-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have approved membership for Ukraine prior to 2008 and in 2008, prior to 2014 and in 2014, and in prior to 24 February 2022.
NATO: United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Albania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, Turkiye, Latvia, and North Macedonia.
If the government of Ukraine would have been a member of NATO on 22 February 2022, the government of Ukraine would have invoked Article 5 of the NATO Charter and sought the deployment of member equipment and personnel into the territory of Ukraine to engage directly with the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
The government of Ukraine presents that had Ukraine been a member of NATO prior to 2014 or prior to 24 February 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation would not have invaded because Article 5 would have been dissuasive. The government of Ukraine may be correct. The issue now is moot.
However, Article 5 does not require any NATO member to deploy anything anywhere. Article 5 does not require any member to invoke a military response. From NATO:
“In 1949, the primary aim of the North Atlantic Treaty – NATO’s founding treaty – was to create a pact of mutual assistance to counter the risk that the Soviet Union would seek to extend its control of Eastern Europe to other parts of the continent. Every participating country agreed that this form of solidarity was at the heart of the Treaty, effectively making Article 5 on collective defence a key component of the Alliance. Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.
Article 5- “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”
This article is complemented by Article 6, which stipulates: “For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack: on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France2, on the territory of Turkey or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer; on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.”
With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances.
This assistance is taken forward in concert with other Allies. It is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country. It is therefore left to the judgment of each individual member country to determine how it will contribute. Each country will consult with the other members, bearing in mind that the ultimate aim is to “to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
At the drafting of Article 5 in the late 1940s, there was consensus on the principle of mutual assistance, but fundamental disagreement on the modalities of implementing this commitment. The European participants wanted to ensure that the United States would automatically come to their assistance should one of the signatories come under attack; the United States did not want to make such a pledge and obtained that this be reflected in the wording of Article 5.”
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