Ukraine will not receive an official invitation to join NATO at the July summit in Washington – NYT

Ukraine will not receive an official invitation to join NATO at the July summit in Washington. The United States and Germany are against it, fearing being drawn into a war with Russia.

This was reported by the New York Times, citing NATO officials.

However, NATO is searching for something “substantive” to give to Ukraine as a supposedly long-term show of support. These could be clear criteria that Ukraine needs to meet to start negotiations with NATO. But attempts to define such criteria have “not made progress yet.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg put forward two ideas: transferring NATO coordination of “Ramstein” and gathering $100 billion in aid for Ukraine. The first idea faced objections from allies, while the second one caused confusion.

Stoltenberg also tasked the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, with developing a plan to provide “reliable and predictable” assistance to Ukraine for years to come.

The publication quotes the opinion of former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder, who believes that NATO’s plans for the summer could spoil Russia’s advancement.

“The situation on the ground could look much worse than it does today, and then the real question will be: ‘How can we be sure that Russia won’t win?'” he said.