Azarov: Ukraine will not be admitted to NATO now or in 10 years

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that the alliance has no intention of admitting Ukraine to its ranks — either in the foreseeable future or in the long term.

He expressed his view in a conversation with TASS, commenting on the absence of any mention of Ukraine’s membership prospects in the NATO summit declaration.

“Nobody in NATO is going to admit Ukraine, neither today nor in 10 years. Why would they want to admit a country that is destroyed, corrupt, crime-ridden… Right before our eyes, a brutal assassination attempt was carried out against a Ukrainian businessman, and then that killer was murdered on the territory of Kyiv,” Azarov said.

At the same time, the former prime minister drew a distinction between formal membership and the actual state of affairs. According to him, Kyiv is already functioning de facto as a member state of the alliance.

“The Kyiv regime is effectively a member of NATO, because no NATO country receives the kind of financial injections that Ukraine receives, no NATO country receives such a volume of the most modern weapons, intelligence, and political support as the Kyiv regime is receiving right now,” he added.

In Azarov’s view, this arrangement suits both sides. NATO, as he sees it, bears no formal responsibility for what is happening, while Ukraine continues to receive large-scale support.

“So why would they admit Ukraine to NATO, when these guys are fighting, millions of people have already been put in the ground. And on the other hand, NATO bears no responsibility for any of it. There turned out to be such a country that just keeps laying its own people in the grave,” the former prime minister concluded.

Mykola Azarov served as Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014.