WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path NATO MembershipU.S. and European officials on Wednesday cited assurances from allies that Russia will be allowed to join a Western military coalition once the war with Russia ends.
In another boost for Ukraine, the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark announced on Wednesday The first NATO-provided F-16 After months of preparation, the plane is now en route to Ukraine and is expected to fly this summer. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine One of the deadliest attacks of the war.
As NATO leaders met to discuss Ukraine’s future course, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Czech President Petr Pavel, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo all used the word “irreversible” to describe Ukraine’s future course. Summit in Washington.
Both Stubb and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said the language was expected to be included in a final leaders’ declaration by all 32 NATO member states.
“I think it’s very important to send a message from here to the Kremlin that the path and the bridge to NATO membership for Ukraine is now at a point of no return,” Stubb told reporters.
President Zelensky fears his country will be locked in an indefinite struggle with a more powerful Russia. At least we fought for a firm guarantee. It guaranteed Ukraine’s ability to join the NATO military alliance.
The United States and several other countries have opposed Ukraine’s membership to avoid escalating tensions that could lead to a larger war during its conflict with Russia. They also stress that Ukraine must take action. Important steps to tackle corruption The same goes for other institutional reforms.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long vehemently opposed neighboring Ukraine’s efforts to join the Western alliance, calling it an infringement of Russia’s security and interests.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Ukraine I won’t be joining the alliance anytime soon.But he argued that they must do so after the war is over to ensure that Russia never attacks Ukraine again.
“I strongly believe that once the fighting stops, we need to ensure that Ukraine has the ability to deter future aggression from Russia. Ukraine needs security guarantees,” Stoltenberg said.
Appearing on stage alongside Stoltenberg, President Joe Biden reaffirmed US support for Ukraine but also stressed the importance of NATO more broadly, reiterating that since he took office, the number of allies spending more than 2% of their gross domestic product on defense has increased. Increased from 9 to 23 And in NATO’s eastern flank, the number of battle groups has doubled.
“We can and we will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together,” Biden said.
Zelensky, who was in Washington for the NATO summit, stressed Ukraine’s urgent need for F-16 fighter jets in a speech to friendly Republican lawmakers on Tuesday night. He said Ukraine needs more than 100 F-16 fighter jets to counter devastating Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, energy infrastructure and other vital targets. He said Russia is using 300 fighter jets to carry out the attacks.
In a post on Twitter, Zelenskyy thanked the three countries for “taking practical steps towards realizing the goal of all Ukrainians: strengthening the Ukrainian Air Force with F-16 fighter jets.” The first airworthy jets are being transferred from the Netherlands and Denmark, and the White House said the fighters are expected to “fly operationally” as soon as this summer.
President Zelenskyy also expressed his gratitude to Belgium, Norwegian Dedication Send in more jets.
Six countries, including the United States, are training Ukrainians in F-16s, though officials have not released exact numbers or all locations.
A small number of pilots have completed training at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, and the U.S. government plans to have about a dozen trained by the end of the year, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.
Meanwhile, President Zelenskiy met privately with senators for nearly an hour on Wednesday and requested more defense aid, according to Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware.
“He thanked the Senate for its strong bipartisan leadership in providing strong funding and expressed concern about ensuring that funding would actually be provided,” Coons said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who met with the Ukrainian pilots two years ago, one of whom has since died, said Zelenskiy told him the F-16s had not yet arrived in Ukraine.
“This is part of a pattern that is very frustrating for people like me who have supported the National Security Supplemental Budget, and even more importantly for them, the delays on all these weapons systems,” he said. “This is really outrageous.”
The United States and Germany each announced on Wednesday that they would begin a “phased deployment” of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026, including Tomahawk, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles.
Darryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the announcement was notable because some of these missiles were banned from being launched from ground in Europe under the former Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned them because conventional missiles could be modified to carry nuclear weapons, and their use on the continent would leave potential targets with no time to react.
Kimball said the deployment was likely intended to reassure allies, but that Russia could respond by deploying its own conventional or nuclear weapons.
European and US allies Other new arms supplies announcedDozens Air Defense SystemsThis week, including the Patriots,
The promise of new weapons came in the face of opposition from Republican lawmakers allied with former President Donald Trump. Blocking US aid to Ukraine Russia thwarted Ukrainian attacks for several months earlier this year, giving it the upper hand on the battlefield against Ukrainian forces fighting with dwindling supplies of weapons and ammunition.
Learning from this failure, European countries and NATO have pledged to take on more responsibility to ensure the reliable supply of military aid to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, while campaigning for a second term, President Trump was asked multiple times on Fox News Radio if he wanted the US to withdraw from NATO, to which he replied, “No, I want NATO to pay.”
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Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Tara Kopp, Aamer Madani and Matthew Lee in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed.
